


Reborn

by Laurawrzz



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Angst, Crossover, Doctor Whump, F/M, Gallifrey, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Modern Era, Multi, Multi-Era, Time Lord History, Timey-Wimey, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-13
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-11-20 09:27:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 61,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a crash of realities and stories the Doctor and his companions assemble one final time in the biggest battle they have ever known... The darkness is coming... And not all of them will reach the light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Canon is Doctor Who: A/U pre-Planet Of The Dead, Torchwood: pre-Children of Earth, Sarah Jane Adventures pre-Series 4. :D

"Named the shining world of the seven systems, within the constellation of Kasterborous there sat a planet named Gallifrey. Home to the most powerful race of the known Universe, the Gallifreyans had triumphed time and time again over the worst fiends imaginable; Great Vampires, even the Pythia herself. Proud and strong the Gallifreyans assumed status over the Universe, looking down on the Universe as lesser species that could be controlled and ordered. But this was about to change.

"Thrown into this servitude existence a new child was born, dragged kicking and screaming from the loom into the house of Lungbarrow. The child grew into a young man, curious, intelligent and independent, yet kind and loyal to his closest friends. As he grew more and more he began to resent the ways of the Time Lords, and abandoned his duties to seek a more satisfying life beyond the confines of the citadel.

"He travelled the Universe, using his wits and intelligence to strike down those who were hurting others, asking absolutely nothing in return. He grew and grew, not only in body, but in mind. He had truly become the Universe's protector, living life in the most pleasurable ways, yet also facing the relentless horror of death and destruction on a daily basis.

"When Gallifrey was plunged into great peril, he acted to stand by his homeland he had once resented so much, only to become the last of his kind in the greatest war the Universe had ever known. The fire in him flickered and died. It wasn't until he retreated to an unknown planet in an insignificant star system did he meet a young human woman, who impossibly managed to relight the fire that had once died. Once again he was the Universe's protector, fighting for the downtrodden.

"But then came the greatest battle he'd ever fought, a creature so ancient and impossible he truly wondered if he could defeat it like he had so many others. His friends stood by his side; becoming his courage and strength, but this was a battle he already knew the end to..."


	2. Time Lords Don't Get...

**Torchwood Three**

The familiar churning sound of ancient engines was what told Jack the TARDIS had arrived in the Hub. He rushed down from his office to the entrance area just in time to see the Doctor step out of the TARDIS, scanning the area until his eyes rested on Jack who was skidding to a halt in front of him like a cartoon character.

"I'd wish you'd ring me before you arrive," Jack said, grinning. "I'd have got the good plates out."

The Doctor gave a half-smile, pulling the TARDIS door shut behind him before shoving his hands into his pockets, gazing with interest around the room. "Is Martha around?"

"Don't mind me, then," Jack replied jokingly. "I think she's in the autopsy room. Why?"

"Umm..." the Doctor pulled a face, and turned so his back was facing Jack. Jack froze on the spot, his eyes widening at the sight before him as a single expletive escaped his mouth. The Doctor's jacket was covered in blood and ripped in three places along his back. It had been  _completely_ invisible from the front. "MARTHA!" Jack yelled, grabbing the Doctor's arm and pulling him forcefully towards the direction of the autopsy room.

When they got there Martha was quite obviously in the middle of the autopsy of some strange alien creature, coloured goo and bits of indescribable things covering her hands. She looked up on their entry, a smile broadening at the sight of the Time Lord.

"Hello, stranger!" she said, but Jack was quick to yank the Doctor around so she could see his back, and she gasped in alarm.

"I can see you're busy," the Doctor said over his shoulder casually. "I'll read magazines in the waiting room for a while. This way, is it?" he asked, pointing out the door.

"Are you trying to be funny?" Martha demanded, fuelled by her shock and horror. "Jack, take him to a recovery room, I'll be up in a second!"

"I can wait! Really!" the Doctor protested, but no one was listening as Jack dutifully grabbed his arm again and dragged him across the Hub into a side room, a single bed set in the middle of a small room with glass walls.

"What the hell happened?" Jack asked, pushing him to sit down on the bed.

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably, scratching behind his ear. "Can't you guess?"

Jack paused to consider. "Made a massive angry alien creature even angrier?"

"Something like that, yeah," the Doctor replied. "I would've fixed myself up, but I can't reach it."

"Okay, I'm here!" Martha's voice suddenly yelled, the door bursting open to reveal the woman herself, carrying a bizarre array of medical equipment (most of which probably were not actually needed) in her shirt. "Doctor, just relax, you're going to be fine!"

"I know," the Doctor replied, truly bemused as she emptied her shirt's medical contents onto the bed.

"Can you take off your jacket and shirt?" she asked.

"I don't really want to try, to be honest," the Doctor admitted, obviously quite tensed.

"I'll cut through," Martha said, rummaging through the pile of numerous medical instruments before picking up a pair of scissors from the pile.

The Doctor looked aghast. "But this is my favourite shirt!" he said. Both Jack and Martha stared at him. "Oh, yes. It's already ruined. Go ahead."

Carefully Martha began to cut through his clothes, peeling back the cloth as methodically as she could. The Doctor was completely tensed, his teeth gritted, obviously struggling not to cry out.

"It's okay to show pain," Martha assured him, pausing midway. Even now it looked like a total mess.

"Fine by me," he grunted, closing his eyes and suddenly letting out a cry of pain. With a flourish Martha took off the last of the material and began to examine the wound.

"These are deep," she muttered after a moment. "You're lucky. One inch to the right and you wouldn't have walked in here today."

"Can you fix it?" Jack asked anxiously. Martha nodded, already cleaning the wounds as the Doctor continued to groan in pain throughout.

"I can clean the wound and stitch it up," Martha replied. "But you're staying here, so I can keep an eye on you." This last was to the Doctor, who for once didn't protest. He just nodded and sat in silence as Martha worked. She finished cleaning him up mere ten minutes later, 20 stitches in his back and blood all over her hands.

"Now get some rest," Martha ordered. "Doctor's orders. Do you need a sedative?"

He nodded silently, barely looking at them. She obliged, filling a hypodermic and inserting it into his arm, pushing down. Jack helped the Doctor quickly undress into boxers and a clean t-shirt, probably would've loved it if he wasn't deathly worried for the Time Lord. Just as Jack laid him down in the bed his eyes closed, and he slipped into sleep.

"... Does he seem different to you?" Martha suddenly asked after a moment's silence. Jack looked at her with a frown before she clarified. "I mean, the Doctor I travelled with wouldn't have let me do that."

Jack just shrugged. "He's in a lot of pain."

"He was shot in the arm once when I was with him.," Martha began, looking back at the sleeping Doctor anxiously. "He just stood there complaining about how unsociable the planet was, didn't even seem to care he'd been shot. He wouldn't even let me try to stop the bleeding."

"He's been through a lot," Jack said simply. "Remember how long it took us to get out of him what had happened to Rose, Donna and the metacrisis? Maybe he's just looking for some friends right now."

Martha paused a moment more, still staring at the Doctor before looking back at Jack and nodding decisively, as if just having decided an internal argument. "You're right. That's it."

They left the room, leaving the Doctor to sleep.

* * *

**Pete's World**

"I'm so sorry."

The metacrisis was staring at the hospital doctor in utter disbelief. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't speak...

There was a long pause, absolute silence between them in the consulting room.

"Please..." he finally whispered, struggling to find the words he could possibly say in reply to this. "You... You have to check... Maybe you did something wrong or..."

"There's no fault," the doctor replied gently, a real sadness in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Mr Tyler."

He tried desperately to swallow his tears, but he couldn't. They were coming too thick, too fast... "... Can... Can I see Rose?" he finally asked after a few moments.

"Of course," the doctor answered kindly. She personally led the metacrisis out of the room and into the hospital corridor, following the blank white walls down endless hallways. The metacrisis barely processed what else was going on – the entire world seemed to be distorted; blanked out. Many people were talking in the busy atmosphere of the hospital's day-to-day running, but they were now merely murmurs to his oblivious ears.

"Don," a voice suddenly said, breaking through his mind-scape. He blinked to find they had reached his wife's room, Rose lying in the hospital bed in front of him, her face puffy and red and even more tears looking as though they were about to explode forth. He ran to her immediately, taking her into a close embrace, feeling her trembling body beneath his grip.

For a moment neither of them spoke. Simply because they couldn't find the words.

Finally Don shifted, pulling back to cup her cheek. She up at him, tears rolling down her face.

"This is my fault," she whispered.

"No, it isn't," Don replied instantly, dabbing a kiss to her lips. "There's nothing wrong with us."

"Then why is this happenin'?" Rose asked, still crying. "This isn't fair. One is okay, two I can reason, but three?" She stopped, wiping her eyes. "There's somethin' wrong." She paused again, before her head dropped back down onto the metacrisis' chest. "I really thought this was the one."

"Me too," he muttered, still holding her tightly.

"There has to be a way for us," Rose whispered.

"And if there is, I'll find it," Don said entirely seriously. "But whatever happens we've still got each other."

Rose nodded against his chest. "Yeah," she whispered, reaching up and pressing a kiss to his lips. "I love you."

The metacrisis smiled as best he could at her, moving his hand down to rest on her swollen belly where the dead foetus' heart had failed to beat. "I love you too."

* * *

**Torchwood Three**

"Morning, Doctor. How are you feeling?" Martha asked as she entered his room the next morning. He didn't respond. Martha frowned, moving over to the bed and giving him a shake. Her hand suddenly drew back in alarm, shocked at how hot he was.

"Doctor," Martha said firmly, reaching back to shake him. "Wake up."

"Huh?" the Doctor muttered, confused. He opened his eyes to meet Martha's concerned gaze.

"You're running a fever," she informed him, her right hand resting on his forehead whilst the left drew a thermometer from the table and slipping on a cap before poking the nozzle into his ear. She waited for the bleep.

"I'm fine," he insisted, trying to take the thermometer out of his ear but Martha resolutely took his wrists and held them firmly in restraint.

"You're quite obviously not," Martha said, taking out the thermometer and checking the screen. "25 degrees Celsius."

"Oh," the Doctor muttered, taking the thermometer out of Martha's hand and checking it himself.

"I know that isn't good for you. Let's see your back."

The Doctor rolled his eyes but obliged, turning around on the bed so Martha could check his back.

"How's it going?" Jack entered from the doorway, then stopped dead as Martha peeled back the dressing to reveal the Doctor's infliction.

"He has a fever," Martha explained, checking the wound.

"Infection?" Jack asked, peering at the Doctor's back.

"Time Lords..." the Doctor began, but Martha cut straight over the top of him.

"... Don't get infections, yeah we know," she said, smirking. The smirk soon widened as the diagnosis became apparent. "Looks like an infection to me, Mr Time Lord."

Jack moved forward, looking at the wound with Martha. It was black around the cuts. "What is that?"

"Dead tissue," Martha replied, almost casually.

"I'm fine!" the Doctor insisted once again, pulling away from Martha and getting onto his feet. "Really! Quite hungry, though."

"There's some leftover pizza from last night in the fridge," Jack said. "If Mickey and Ianto don't get there first."

"Do you ever eat anything else?" the Doctor asked seriously, shrugging on a shirt.

Jack shrugged nonchalantly.

"One of these days I'll cook you a meal with vegetables that aren't stuck in a load of mozzarella," the Doctor said, pulling on his jacket, wincing slightly as he did so.

"You cook?" Jack was surprised. "You never cooked when I travelled with you."

The Doctor looked slightly embarrassed. "This body likes cooking."

"I'll bet it does," Jack replied, smiling suggestively.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "How is that even  _slightly_ dirty?"

Jack snorted. "He cooks, cleans, and saves the world! What's not to love?" he asked, looking at Martha, who laughed.

"I'm going now," the Doctor said over his shoulder, walking out of the door.

"But Doctor, my body wants to cook with yours!"

"I'm gone!" the yell came back.

Jack turned to Martha, his expression suddenly stony. "This infection, is it serious?"

Martha shook her head almost instantly. "Shouldn't be a problem for his immune system."

"So I don't need to worry?"

Martha shook her head again. "No, everything's fine."


	3. Defining a Rebound

**Torchwood Three**

The Doctor spluttered. "Wait, you and Martha are  _together?"_

Mickey seemed a little taken aback at the Doctor's shocked reaction to what he thought was just casual conversation. "You got a problem with that?"

"No, no, it's just… What happened to Tom?" the Doctor asked, blinking.

"Can't you guess?"

"No, I can't."

"It's a human thing," Mickey began, munching on another slice of pizza. "It's called a rebound."

The Doctor seemed somehow even more confused. "What's a rebound?" He paused, thought some more. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Mickey replied.

"… More pizza, please."

Mickey grinned, and held out the plate. As the Doctor reached out to take the last slice Jack entered the doorway.

"Martha wants to see you, Doctor," he informed the Time Lord, moving unfeasibly quickly over to the box and nabbing the slice the Doctor was reaching out for.

"Hey!" the Doctor protested, thoroughly disgruntled. "That was mine!"

"I don't see your name on it," Jack replied cheekily, devouring it in three bites. "Martha wants to see you," he repeated. "She's got an idea about that infection."

The Doctor sighed, pushing on the table to get to his feet. He waved a fond farewell to Mickey, but to his surprise Mickey was getting up to follow him. The Doctor gave him an inquisitive look, but Mickey simply shrugged.

"I wanna look," he said. "I bet it's gross."

The Doctor sighed again. "I preferred it when you were a wimp. C'mon then."

They emerged in the examination room, where Martha was already prepared. She gestured for the Doctor to take a seat on the bed as Mickey hovered in the corner, peering over Martha's shoulder with interest.

As the wound was revealed Mickey's face screwed up in disgust, and Martha's eyes widened in alarm.

"It's spreading," she realised, and it was true. There were thin black lines spreading out from the scratches, heading up towards his left shoulder. "This isn't like anything I've seen before." She reached forward towards his back with latex gloves on. "This might hurt."

She examined the black lines with her finger, prodding and poking and pulling, but the Doctor couldn't feel it.

"It's like… it's growing under your skin," Martha surmised. There was the distinct sound of a camera phone taking a picture, and the Doctor turned to find Mickey with his phone out, pointing at his back. The Doctor grabbed the phone, looking at the picture himself.

"Oh," he muttered.

"Do you know what that is?" Martha asked.

There was a long, silent pause before the Doctor suddenly turned around, a broad smile on his face.

"You're right," he said, grinning. "Just an infection. I can treat it in the TARDIS." He suddenly jumped off of the bed, tossing Mickey back his phone before reaching for his shirt and pulling it on. "Nice seeing you all again, but I'd better be off."

He moved quickly towards the door. Martha hastily grabbed his arm, stopping him dead in his tracks.

"Tell me what medicines to get. Your fever's getting worse, you need to rest."

"No, really, I have to go," the Doctor insisted.

Martha didn't like this one bit. "No, Doctor, you're staying here where I can keep an eye on you. Get into bed," she demanded, quite seriously. Her glare was so ferocious the Doctor simply had to oblige, rapidly getting into the bed at her command.

"Now, tell me what medicines you need."

The Doctor stared hard at her. "Pinizopan."

"Thank you," Martha replied, drawing the covers up over him. "Mickey, keep an eye on him. I'll get the Pinizopan."

Mickey watched the Doctor carefully as the Time Lord watched Martha exit the room, his gaze completely devoid of emotion.

* * *

**Pete's World**

Jackie's instant reaction was to hug the both of them as tightly as she could as soon as they got back from the hospital. She already knew what had happened, call it maternal instinct.

"I'm so sorry, love," she said as comfortingly as she could, holding Don tightly and rubbing his back.

Don nodded, feeling completely empty inside. His single human heart was hurting more than his dual ones ever had, and it was times like this he appreciated Jackie, as the Mother he hadn't had for hundreds of years.

"We're gonna keep tryin'," Rose said as Jackie parted from Don, nodding as if assuring herself it was the right thing to do. She took Don's hand, and felt him squeeze tightly.

Jackie was probably surprised by what Rose had said, but she hid it well. She simply nodded.

"Don't fret about arrangin' a funeral. I'll sort that out."

Rose and Don looked at each other, and then nodded. "Thanks, Jackie," Don said quietly.

"It's okay, love," she answered with a smile, before pulling a big smile in a change of subject. "Pete's havin' a business dinner tonight with a rich man hopin' for investment, he wants you to be there, but don't feel you have to."

Don and Rose looked at each other again, their hands still intertwined. Maybe it would help take their minds off of what had happened for a while.

"We'll go," Don said.

* * *

**Sarah Jane Smith**

It was already afternoon by the time Sarah got around to going to the attic. After cleaning up, the grocery shopping and ferrying the teenagers to and from school her day had pretty much been packed from the moment her alarm had gone off. Cleaning the house up after Clyde and Rani had stayed the night last night had taken three hours alone, and Sarah had discovered in the process for the first time that K9 was in fact not built for domestics. Not even a hoover attachment. Typical Doctor.

At 5pm she dragged herself into the attic feeling absolutely knackered, extremely ready just to have dinner, kick back for the evening with a cup of Horlicks and watch the television.

"Mr Smith, I need you!" she said, and was met with the usual fanfare exploding from the alien machine.

"Good afternoon, Sarah Jane," Mr Smith said politely.

"Anything happened?" she asked, crossing her fingers, hoping and praying...

Mr Smith paused for a moment. "I am detecting some unusual activity in close national vicinity, Sarah Jane."

Sarah sighed, shoulders sagging. So much for her Horlicks' night, she thought. "What sort of activity?"

"I am afraid I cannot specify," Mr Smith replied regretfully. "It does not seem to be even a concept in my database. I would suggest immediate investigation."

"Where is it?"

"A very specific point within London," he said, bringing up a map of London and marking the point with a red dot.

Sarah's jaw dropped. "That's... That's Canary Wharf. The Torchwood Tower. Are Torchwood still there?"

"No, Sarah Jane," Mr Smith replied in his ever calm voice. "The base has been abandoned since the Battle of Canary Wharf."

Sarah nodded. "Thank you, Mr Smith," she said, turning back to the door.

"Sarah Jane," Mr Smith suddenly interrupted, sounding a little anxious. "I suggest proceeding with extreme caution."

"What?"

"My database is extremely extensive. I can catalogue every known species in the Universe at .2 of a nanosecond. This, I cannot specify, or even analyse from this close range. This would suggest it is a life form unknown, and unencountered."

Sarah paused for a moment, taking this in, and then nodded.

"Thank you, Mr Smith," she said again, then left the attic, grabbing her coat and handbag and making to the front door.

"Mum?" suddenly came Luke's voice from the kitchen, and moments later the teenager wandered into the hallway to find her half-out the door.

"I'm going to be a few hours," she said over her shoulder.

"Where're you going?" he asked.

"Mr Smith has detected something unusual. Stay here."

"What? Can't I come?"

She shook her head instantly. "It could be very dangerous. If I'm not back, tell Mr Smith to contact the Doctor."

Luke frowned. "Mum..."

"No arguments. Tea's in the oven," she said, and with that, she disappeared out the door.

* * *

**Torchwood Three**

"Checkmate," the Doctor said dully for the hundredth time that afternoon to the situation on the chessboard on his lap. Mickey sighed once again, clearing off the chess pieces.

"Why can't you let me win like before?" Mickey asked seriously.

"Oh Mickey," the Doctor began, grinning. "You're not eight anymore."

He glared at the Doctor. "Shut up!"

"Doctor," Martha's voice began from the doorway, Jack hovering behind her. "Let me check your back."

"I'm like a cabaret dog," the Doctor huffed, turning as Mickey took the chessboard off of his lap. The moment his wound revealed itself the entire room fell silent.

The Doctor shifted awkwardly. "Umm, not good?"

Martha pulled on her latex gloves, poking and prodding at the black lines – they had spread quite quickly to his shoulder and were beginning to climb down his left arm and up the left side of his neck.

"It's spread," Martha muttered, pulling out her stethoscope and turning him back around to face her, placing the end on his chest. "Okay, breathe in for me Doctor. Hold it… Now out. In, hold it, out." She was frowning, listening hard. "Okay, take the biggest breath in that you can. Hold it. Out."

She pulled back, her eyes narrowed in concentration to think of the correct diagnosis. Finally she looked back at the Doctor who was staring at her intently with those deep, brown eyes.

"Let me check your arm's motor responses," she began, reaching for his arm.

"No."

Martha gazed at him, almost in the disgust that he was still trying to fob her off. "Doctor, I'm not arguing about this. You're hurt, let me help you."

"It's not that," the Doctor said, some sort of forced chirpiness in his voice.

"What? Give me your arm."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Martha…" the Doctor was on the verge of whispering, gazing straight into her eyes. "… I'm so sorry."

Martha was  _really_ paying attention now, stopping, almost frozen as she gazed right back at him. He only ever spoke those words when…

The silence was deafening. Finally the Doctor spoke, but his words cut like razorblades.

"My left arm is paralysed," he said. "I can't feel it."

* * *

"This isn't an ordinary infection," Jack muttered, staring out from the balcony over the Hub, Martha standing next to him. She had  _needed_  to get out of that room.

"Sort of sussed that one; thanks, Jack," Martha replied rudely, and it was a few moments because she realised what she'd said. "Oh I'm sorry, Jack."

"It's okay," Jack replied, placing his hand around her shoulders in comfort. "We will work this out."

"Has he said what he was doing when he got these cuts?" Martha asked, turning to Jack. Jack just gave a half-shrug.

"Just that he was chased by an angry alien creature. The usual."

"Maybe there was something on those claws," Martha murmured.

"Like a poison?" Jack suggested.

She nodded. "But he knows what it is, he got that medicine to treat himself."

"Maybe it's getting worse before it gets better."

"Maybe…" Martha muttered, but she was interrupted from saying anything else as the door of the Doctor's room suddenly flew open and Mickey stood in the doorway, his eyes wide in alarm.

"It's the Doctor!" he yelled. "He's having a heart attack!"


	4. Tears of Black

**Sarah Jane Smith**

Sarah's sonic lipstick had made short work on the door locks of Canary Wharf, corroded from lack of use. The interior was much like it – untouched since the battle a few years ago. She was surprised no one had come to clean it up, yet. Tables were overturned, glass smashed, paper everywhere, scald marks on the walls, traces of blood on the floor.

The lifts were out of order – no surprises there. It was completely dark as well, so she brought out a torch from her ever-resourceful handbag and flicked it on, scouring her surroundings. Stairwell in the corner. It looked like the only option.

She knew where the spatial disturbance was. She had been here once before – three years ago – a few months after the battle. It looked exactly the same.

Some of the infrastructure had collapsed, but the stairwell was still perfectly accessible. Slowly and cautiously she made her way up and up until she finally reached the top floor.

The ghost shift chamber. There were the levers, one on either side, currently switched off. There was a terrible draft, and she looked to her right to see the glass window in the office was completely smashed in; glass all over the floor. Computer terminals joined the mass of debris – smashed in monitors lying on the floor, their accompanying tables collapsed in on themselves.

But she wasn't here to check the damage. She turned left and cast her beam of light to the large blank wall at the end of the room... and gasped.

It was cracked. One, long crack cut down the middle, barely three feet in length but evidently it had been enough. Because out of the crack something was seeping out, like tears...

Tears of black.

She moved her torch down to the floor at the foot of the wall. There was a giant puddle of black liquid, the same black that was dribbling out of the crack. What the...

She forced herself to move forward to get a better look. But on her third step, she realised her right foot was stuck. Alarmed, she shone her torch down to where she'd stepped... and forced herself to calm down.

She'd stepped into the puddle of black.

It had cemented her foot the the floor. She couldn't move. How could she have been so  _stupid?_ She was stuck...

She breathed for a moment, trying desperately not to panic. Think rationally. She had an idea, bending down to undo her boot when she realised that the blackness had not just cemented her shoe. It was moving, slicking up her boot and rapidly towards her knee. She squeaked in alarm, trying to move her other foot... but that was stuck now too.

She screamed out loud, trying with all her might to yank her foot out of the black liquid, but it had a very firm grip. It moved up and up her body, and soon she couldn't move her legs at all. It continued up her body, reaching her torso, wrapping itself around her like a second skin...

"DOCTOR!" she screamed – she couldn't help it, it was impulse. But he wasn't here. He wasn't here.  _He wasn't here..._

It was up at her shoulders now, and she couldn't move. She was absolutely terrified. She was going to die. She tried again to move, managing to grasp her sonic lipstick from her bag but it was like weights were attached to her arms. She fumbled for the switch and pressed it... but it had no effect.

There was nothing she could do.

Finally the black liquid reached her neck, and her neck was completely paralysed. It was going to eat her or suffocate her or... something even worse...

Then it completely coated her, and all that was left was a black statue of Sarah Jane Smith standing in the middle of Canary Wharf, hand still clutching her sonic lipstick, her mouth in a silent scream.

* * *

**Pete's World**

Pete had outlined quite clearly that this dinner was extremely important on every level; utterly pivotal in the future investment of Vitex and absolutely nothing was allowed to go wrong.

More servants than there had ever been in the Tyler mansion were running around amok, trying to get absolutely every detail perfect for the impending arrival of the extremely rich man. Don and Rose arrived at the dinner table mere seconds before all the servants cleared the room and the man entered.

His name was Percival Morton, and he came complete with his trophy wife Cecilia, and even by first appearances Don and Rose could tell this was a man born with £50 notes for nappies. He was the kind that had 'inherited Father's estate' and hadn't done a day's work in his life.

All the same, Don and Rose shook the couple's hands before they sat down to dinner.

It had been about an hour and they were on dessert, immersed in discussion about Morton's business life. Tony was fidgeting, obviously hugely bored, Pete and Jackie were trying to look as interested as they could while Rose gazed blankly across the room, staring at the wall as Don watched her carefully.

"Well, Peter," Morton was saying as he sipped his glass of red wine like a connoisseur. "I simply was not having any of that! I told the man, 'I don't pay you to fold my bed sheets incorrectly!' and fired him on the spot! You had to have seen his face, Peter!" Morton laughed boisterously, a laugh that seemed to as much like music to Don's ears like nails down a blackboard. Mrs Morton was laughing to, and if Morton had the most annoying laugh in the Universe, his wife had to have the fakest.

But Don knew how important this was to Pete, so he grinned and bared it. Until Morton looked in Rose's direction. He quite obviously strained his neck and looked over the table, staring at her pregnant belly in disdain.

"How old are you?" he asked Rose, the first words he'd spoken to Rose all night.

"I'm 21," Rose replied, a little apprehensive.

"That's a little young to be pregnant, don't you think, Peter?"

Pete froze, before glancing at Rose, and then Don, but was saved from answering as Don cut in before him.

"We feel we're ready to have a child now, Mr Morton," he said politely, despite the hatred burning inside him.

"Why yes, of course," the man replied, extremely insincerely. "How far along are you?" he asked Rose.

Rose looked as though she might cry. Don quickly grabbed her hand under the table and held it tightly.

"The baby is dead," he said quietly.

To everyone's utter surprise, Morton suddenly laughed, taking another sip of wine. "Well, I believe biology has a way of telling people they will not be fit parents."

Don stared at the man. The entire room was gripped in utter silence; even Tony had stopped fidgeting. "What?" Don asked, unable to believe what he'd just heard.

"Some people are just not supposed to be parents."

Don felt Rose's grip tighten. She was shaking. Jackie was sitting with her jaw agape, Tony was staring at Don and Pete couldn't seem to be able to look at  _anyone._

"You think me and Rose wouldn't make good parents?" Don asked dryly, dangerously.

The man laughed that annoying laugh again. "Well of course, what would I know, I only own the entirety of Southern England! With the girl's age it is probably a blessing!"

In seconds Rose was on her feet, letting go of Don's hand. "Excuse me," she practically whimpered, on the verge of bursting into tears as she rushed out of the room. Don could've  _screamed_ with anger as he stared at Morton with utter malice and hatred.

"Don…" Pete warned, but Don couldn't hear him through the ringing in his ears. He got onto his feet, leaning forward on the table with his eyes boring into Morton's.

"Jo," Don began, addressing the servant standing in the corner. She rushed over to his side immediately.

"Yes, Mr Tyler?" she asked politely.

"Maybe Tony's getting bored with all this adult stuff," Don said, still not taking his eyes off of Morton. "Can you take him down to watch some TV?"

Jo looked at Jackie for confirmation, who nodded silently.

"Of course, Mr Tyler," Jo replied, bowing courteously before moving over to Tony and taking his hand, leading the boy out of the door.

Don waited a few moments until he was sure Tony was at a safe distance before he suddenly started walking around the table to Morton, so much hate in his face he looked at though he were about to  _kill_ Morton. Pete rose in alarm but before he could do anything Don had his hand around Morton's throat, squeezing dangerously with their faces centimetres from each other.

"Right now I could  _punch_  you in the  _face_ ," Don grated. "But I'm not going to. Because, unlike you, I have a bit of decency in my heart." Don paused for a moment, sucking up the look of fear in the man's eyes. "Now, if you'll excuse me, you've upset my wife."

He let go of the man, and without so much as a glance back, he marched out, slamming the door behind him so hard the wall almost shook.

Just outside the door he stopped dead, head in his hands as he tried in vain to control his parade of emotions. Being part-Donna and part-Doctor with such a violent contradiction of emotions made him practically bipolar sometimes. The Doctor hadn't thought of  _that_ , had he? Was this Donna or the Doctor at the moment? He could've quite easily smashed that man's head on the table until his brains came out…

He took a few deep breaths, managing to calm himself down. He needed to find Rose. He finally lifted his head and started off down the corridor in search of Rose.

It wasn't long before he heard the sound of sobbing. Rose's sobbing. Instantly all the anger in him flooded away, replaced by sadness and concern. He followed the sobs until he reached a bathroom door, and tried the handle. The door was locked.

"Rose?" he called gently. "Let me in."

It didn't need anymore persuasion. The sound of the bolt sliding back registered and Don eased the door open to find Rose sitting cross-legged on the floor, facing away from him with her hands on her face.

He moved over to her instantly, dropping to his knees beside her and drawing her into a hug.

"Don't listen to him," he whispered, stroking her hair. "He's just a posh git with twisted morals."

"But… what if he's right, Don?"

"There's no way in hell he's right," Don said, turning her face towards him. "I will find a way, I promise."

She nodded, but it didn't stop the tears from rolling down her face. He held her closer, kissing her head.

"Rose? Don?" it was Jackie.

"In here," Don called. In moments Jackie was in the bathroom, holding them both tightly without a word.

It took ten minutes until they felt ready to re-enter the Dining Room. Rose checked the mirror in the bathroom, forcing a laugh at her own reflection.

"Mascara everywhere," she joked, smiling at Don.

"But you're still beautiful," Don replied, kissing her on the lips and holding her tight. For a few moments they stayed like that, before taking a few deep breaths and making their way back to the Dining Room.

To their utter surprise, they found Pete sitting alone, a bottle of Pimms in hand with his feet propped up on the table. The Mortons had left.

"Where'd they go?" Jackie asked.

"I told them to fuck off," Pete replied simply, offering a smile as he got up and moved over to Rose, hugging her.

"Thanks, Dad," Rose said quietly.

"That's okay," he replied. "Now let's…"

Suddenly Pete's voice trailed off into a high-pitched feedback noise, and Don blinked in surprise. The others were talking, but all he could hear was ringing in his ears. Everything was going blurry, colours merging and people indistinguishable…

"Don?"

He couldn't speak, he couldn't see…

" _CLEAR!"_

"Don!"

His heart… his heart was tingling…

" _Come on, Doctor! CLEAR!"_

"DON!"

He had the vague feeling of resting his hand on his chest…

" _Third time's the charm! CLEAR!"_

Pain shot though his heart, and he heard himself scream… though he was pretty sure he hadn't opened his mouth.

" _Not now, Doctor! You can do it! CLEAR!"_

" _Don!"_

" _Doctor!"_

The entire world faded into nothing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three simultaneous cliffhangers! :o I really do apologise... Well... okay I don't. You know I don't. :D


	5. Responsibility

**Torchwood Three**

The Doctor jolted about a foot in the air with the fifth shock, and simultaneously the heart-rate monitor burst into life. Both of his hearts were beating again. It took a few moments to register in Jack, Mickey and Martha's minds until they all breathed a collective sigh of relief, Martha setting the defibrillators down on the side whilst Mickey and Jack looked on in pure shock. She glanced at them both before looking back at the Doctor, checking he was breathing. He was.

"Doctor? Can you hear me?" she asked gently, but he was completely unresponsive. Just to be on the safe side she pulled an oxygen mask over his face and lowered the head of the bed, the Doctor limp and unrelenting on the surface. She checked his temperature again – he was still in the twenties, so she made sure all the sheets were off of him, leaving the Time Lord flushed red and lying half-naked on the bed.

Martha's brow furrowed, and she turned to Jack and Mickey. "I can't give him paracetamol and we need to lower his temperature right now."

"What do you need?" Mickey asked quickly, willing to help in anyway he could.

"Get a bowl of cold water and a sponge."

Mickey nodded and quickly ran out the door, leaving only Jack left to stand immobile in the room whilst Martha checked the Doctor was fully linked up to the machines.

After a few moment's silence between them Jack finally spoke, his voice cracked. "... What the hell happened?"

"I'm not sure," Martha said slowly, holding a stethoscope on the Doctor's chest. "But... well... The infection is... I think it's..." she paused, looking up at Jack absolutely serious. "... It's attacking his left heart."

* * *

**Pete's World**

Don shifted, and slowly came to.

Instantly he was met with the sight of Rose bending over him, utter panic in her expression. The moment she saw his eyes open she cupped his face and kissed his forehead gently.

"Are you okay? How do you feel?" she asked quickly.

He forced himself to push onto his elbows, blinking a few times to straighten things out. He was still in the Dining Room, a cushion under his head with tens of people running around frantically. "What happened?" he asked drowsily.

"You had a sort of fit then fainted," Rose said gently, obviously struggling to hide her hysteria. "Don't worry, Mum's called an ambulance."

His eyes widened in alarm as everything suddenly came crashing back home, and with it a burst of energy. "No! No, don't call an ambulance. I'm fine," he said quickly, struggling to his feet.

Jackie quickly moved in to support him, alarmed. "Sweetheart, I think we should be on the safe side..."

"Jackie, I'm fine, really, there's..."

"It could be a relapse of some kind," Pete suddenly input from across the room, interrupting him. "You need to go to hospital, Don. What happened to you before..."

"No," he repeated, pulling away from Jackie and turning to Rose quickly. "Rose..."

"This isn't somethin' you can brush off, Don!" Rose insisted, almost angrily. "I'm not watchin' you go through that again! God, you're just like him!"

And then suddenly all three of them were yelling at him, trying desperately to make him see sense; with good reason, but it wasn't that, Don already knew. His brow furrowed and his felt his patience crumble as they continued to hurl screams at him, words completely lost in the cacophony of yells...

"SHUT UP!" he suddenly yelled, utterly red in the face. Instantly the three fell silent. Even the servants still buzzing around seemed to freeze where they stood.

Don closed his eyes and just breathed for a few moments, trying desperately to suppress the Donna in him until he finally felt calm enough to speak. "It wasn't that."

"But..."

"Shut up, Rose!" he yelled again, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her until finally she stopped in her protests, realising he had something to say. "It was the Doctor," he said...and as a result Jackie, Pete and Rose stared at him in complete disbelief. This was going to take an explanation. "I heard it," he continued. "I felt him. He's in big trouble, Rose. I think he was having a hearts attack. I heard Martha's voice, she was trying to revive him..."

"What?" Rose asked, completely caught off-guard.

"I know it sounds weird, but I swear that's what I heard. It was Martha's voice. She had defibrillators. She was yelling at him to wake up..."

"How d'you know this?" Jackie wanted to know. "How d'you know it was real?"

"I think..." He paused for a moment, wondering how his next sentence would sound when he spoke it out loud. "... I'm connected to him."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jackie persisted, hands on hips, obviously sceptical.

"I was born out of his hand," Don explained slowly and carefully. "I'm part of him. He's just had a heart attack and I felt it."

He looked at Rose, who was gawping at him. There was a momentary pause. He felt strangely relieved when she suddenly nodded, accepting what he was saying.

"Is he still alive?" she asked anxiously.

"I don't know," Don admitted. "But we need to go. Right now."

"Where?"

"The parallel world of course!" he said, pulling back from her and throwing his arms up in the air. "I'll tweak the dimension cannon, fix it up and it should localise us to the Cardiff rift placement."

Rose's eyes suddenly widened. "You what? You could fix it all this time?" She saw him nod. "But..."

"Rose, there's no time. We have to go, now."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door. But she didn't move. He looked back, confused.

"Don, we can't do this."

"What?"

"I can't let you. The Doctor told me to stop you before you did something stupid. We'd be punching a hole in the Universe. It's not right."

He looked her straight in the eye... he looked just like the Doctor had when they had first landed on the parallel world and he'd told her she couldn't see her parallel father... "Rose... He's had a hearts attack and I am the  _only_  one who knows  _anything_  about his physiology. I have to go. I have to help him. I'm the only one. It's not a question of whether we'll go or not, it's a question of whether you're coming with me."

Rose gazed into his eyes, those deep brown so full of determination and intelligence.

She didn't have a choice, really.

"... Okay."

* * *

**Torchwood Three**

Martha was waiting when the Doctor woke up.

He rose to consciousness slowly, blinking open his eyes to meet her face looming over him. His brow furrowed, confused. "What..." he began, but didn't seem inclined to finish the sentence as he turned his head to realise he was connected to tens of machines and an oxygen mask on his face. Just as well really, he wasn't finding it very easy to breathe.

"You went into cardiac arrest," Martha said gently.

He just nodded, struggling to sit up so he could look at the black markings. He could see them for himself, now. They were reaching out like roots of black over his shoulder and onto his chest – one of the black lines travelling fast across where his left heart was.

"Your drug isn't working," Martha's voice said, breaking through his thoughts.

"It takes time," he said quickly.

Martha watched him carefully for a moment as he coughed chestily and gasped for oxygen behind the mask. She swallowed, very nervous indeed.

"I thought it might be attacking your left heart..."

He nodded. "It is. My chest feels tingly."

"Looks like it's taking out your lungs as well," she continued, strangely calmly.

He didn't even bother answering that one. He readjusted himself on the bed, and it took a moment until he realised he was sitting on his paralysed arm. He sighed, pulling it out from under him and placing it on the cover with his working arm. Martha watched every moment.

"Doctor," Martha said sternly, the single word harsh and serious. He looked at her, his face completely impassive, considering for a moment.

"... It takes time," he repeated.

"But it's spreading," Martha said in the same tone of voice as a sentence previously, clenching her fists and leaning forward, feeling unjustifiably angry at him. "By the time it works you might already be..." She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry at the mere thought of the next word she was about to say... "... Dead."

He didn't get the opportunity to reply to this as he launched into another coughing fit. She quickly helped him, holding him up until it ended. The infection was spreading. Was it even an infection? She had no idea what it was, but it was spreading – and fast.

"How did you get these cuts?" she finally asked when he had managed to gain control of his breathing once more.

"What does it even matter?"

"I'd like to know."

He sighed, looking down at the black marks on his chest. He could've sworn it had spread even more in the short time since he'd looked at it last. "Okay," he said, and took a breath before he began to tell her the story.


	6. Tooth and Claw

**Planet Xargon**

_Two days earlier..._

The Doctor often forgot when he was younger that humans needed to sleep as much as they did. He'd wear them down with travelling until they either yelled at him that they needed to go to bed or he noticed them frequently walking into doors. Because he used to barely sleep. Once a year had been satisfactory for him. He'd always thought humans were exceptionally frail in that respect.

But he was old, now. Being on his Tenth body he was technically a senior in Gallifreyan society. If Gallifrey was still around and had a state pension, he would be on it, even though 900 years was considered quite young for a Time Lord. But he'd burned through ten bodies in less than 1000 years, and that could generally be considered as irresponsible. Time Lords had a life span of roughly 300 years per body, and he could only dread to think what his mother would say if she saw him now...

With his age he became tired a lot quicker. He needed sleep almost as much as humans. But Jackson had been right, nightmares frequented him, and it had always been bad – especially since the Time War. It hadn't been an issue with Rose; she understood him in ways beyond what he had actually told her, and was always there for him when he woke up from a nightmare. After a while of being with her they had stopped altogether. It wasn't until the night before the Battle of Canary Wharf did he discover she still went into his room at night to check he was sleeping well. And after that day, after losing her in the parallel world... well, the nightmares had returned. And they hadn't really stopped since.

He stepped out into the bright sunshine of Planet Xargon – a generally uninhabited, little known, tiny, yet beautiful world in the Kaxon cluster. It had been a month since he had left Donna with Wilf and Sylvia, and he had barely slept. He'd given up altogether in the past week after meeting Jackson Lake and Rosita, distracting himself with tweaking the TARDIS mainly, and as a result he was absolutely exhausted.

He needed some time to retreat from the Universe and organise his thoughts, and this seemed like just the place. Miles of untouched land spread out before him, alien creatures from birds to wolves to things the human race couldn't even identify with prowled the land in their usual business.

He took a seat on a hill covered with bright purple grass and for the first time in weeks, he just allowed himself to relax, watching the clouds above him move slowly across the sky. Pretty soon his exhaustion overtook him and he slipped into sleep – for the first time in weeks, on this peaceful world, it was completely dreamless.

The next thing he knew there was a wet nose sniffing his face. He blinked open his eyes and found three wolf-like creatures staring down at him with interest...

"Umm, hi," the Doctor said, a little surprised.

The wolves simultaneously growled, teeth bared, saliva dripping from their teeth...

"Whoa," the Doctor muttered, suddenly uneasy. "Now... stay there... don't move..."

One pounced.

With lightning-quick reactions the Doctor rolled to the side, just avoiding the pounce to end up on his feet. The other two instantly pounced in quick succession but in one fell swoop he dodged and grabbed his coat from the ground at the same time, tucking it under his arm as he began to run towards the blue box standing in the distance...

He glanced over his shoulder – the wolves had righted themselves and were running towards him at double the speed he was running. He upped his speed as fast as he could possibly achieve – but they were still gaining. The TARDIS was so close, if he could just get there...

Suddenly there was an explosion of pain from his back – one had got him. He spun around and on impulse kicked the wolf in the side, and it quickly backed away. The other two were just behind, though...

He began to run backwards, fumbling in his jacket for the sonic as pain coursed down his back. He finally found it, bringing it out and flicking it on, pointing at the two wolves. As the sonic exploded into life the wolves stopped dead, suddenly whining and backing away from him. He began to back away to the TARDIS again, frantically clicking his fingers in the hopes that maybe the doors would open...

There was the familiar creak of the TARDIS doors opening, and he quickly glanced back. He was ten metres away, and the wolves were beginning to become attuned to the frequency of the sonic, creeping forward...

He whirled around and bolted for the TARDIS. There were the pads of running feet behind him, but he was metres, now, metres...

He reached the threshold and dived inside, turning to throw the doors shut behind him just in time for the wolves to slam into the doors on the other side. Breathing heavily he groaned and dropped the sonic without care onto the grating, falling back in a collapse onto the ground.

Then in a nice reminder, his back shot through with pain and he cried out in surprise. Rolling over he saw there was blood on the TARDIS grating where he'd been lying, and after reaching up to check his back he realised just how badly he had been injured. Blood was all over the floor at his hand, and he could barely reach it...

Grunting, he hauled himself to his feet, leaving the sonic and his coat abandoned on the floor as he moved to the console, realising there was really only one thing he could do. He programmed for Torchwood Three.

* * *

**Torchwood Three**

"That's it, really," the Doctor said after he'd finished telling the story.

"Is there any chance those creatures could've had a poison on their claws?" Martha asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing. It's not needed in their food chain. They generally just eat birds. Normally they're quite calm creatures."

"What about the atmosphere? Maybe it wasn't good for you?"

He stared at her. "Martha. It was fine."

"But there must be a reason this is happening," Martha persisted. "Has nothing a bit weird happened to you?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

"Then what's going on?"

"It's just an infection," he said calmly. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better. Okay?"

Martha sighed, hugging herself and looking to the floor. "Just promise me you won't die." There was a long pause. "Doctor?" she repeated, looking up. It was only then she realised he was flat-lining... "DOCTOR!" she screamed, running forward and hammering the panic button by the bed head. Instantly the entire Hub flashed red, sirens wailing as she commenced CPR...

* * *

Mickey was sat at his desk playing a round of Tetris on the computer when suddenly the Hub exploded into an alert. He almost jumped a foot in the air in surprise, heart racing. He looked around to see if he could see the problem before he slowly realised... the Doctor.

He jumped to his feet and made to run to the Doctor's room... but a sudden shrill beeping from his computer made his brow furrow and he whirled back around. His screen was flashing red, with  **ALERT: RIFT ACTIVE**  printed across it...

Jack ran past him in a blur of speed, heading towards the Doctor's room. Mickey swallowed, still staring at the monitor...

"Umm, Jack..."

"Not now, Mickey!" the ex-Time Agent yelled back as he disappeared up the stairs.

"But..." Mickey said flatly, pointing at the monitor... but Jack had already disappeared. Suddenly there was a flash of blue light, blinding Mickey for a few moments before his eyes adjusted to find the entire room was consumed in bright blue light...

"Wake up! Wake up!" a voice suddenly yelled – echoed and distant – but he recognised it.

"Rose?" he gasped.

Suddenly figures appeared in the light, a person holding another one up.

"Don! Wake up!" the voice yelled again and the bright blue light spontaneously disappeared as quickly as it had arrived leaving Rose and the Doctor's metacrisis in the middle of the Hub, Rose holding up the metacrisis and screaming at him to wake up.

"Rose?" Mickey asked again, completely shocked. She looked up at the sound of his voice and instantly hope shone in her eyes.

"Mickey! Help us, please help us!"

* * *

**Ealing, London**

It was 2am, and his Mum wasn't home yet.

Luke paced up and down the front room, wanting, hoping and praying that she would walk through that door within the next five seconds. Every time a car rolled by he would jump to the window to check – but it was never her car.

How long was he supposed to wait for? She'd been gone for ten hours. She'd only said a few hours. This wasn't right at all...

Even if his Mum was just stuck in traffic, she could also be in very serious trouble. She hadn't looked completely calm about going. Where did she even go?

It was about twenty minutes before he came to a decision. He had to phone the Doctor. With renewed hope he ran up the stairs into the attic, calling for Mr Smith as he entered.

"Good morning, Luke," Mr Smith said, as calmly as ever.

"Can you contact the Doctor?" Luke asked instantly, hopping from foot to foot. "Mum's been gone for ten hours."

There was a momentary pause. "I feared this would happen," Mr Smith said regretfully. "I can contact the Doctor's mobile using the stored number. Processing."

A progress bar appeared on the monitor – nanoseconds feeling like hours – until it finally completed and a ringing began.

Luke tensed, trying to sort out what he was going to say before the Doctor picked up.

But by the fifteenth ring Luke realised he wasn't going to pick up. It switched to voicemail.

"Doctor," Luke said quickly. "It's Luke... Sarah's son? Mum's gone, she's been gone for ages and I think she's in trouble. She said to phone you if she was gone for too long. Please come?"

He wasn't sure what else to say. The Mr Smith hung up, and there was utter silence in the room.

"Luke," Mr Smith began after a few moments. "Perhaps you should go to bed."

"But..."

"I will continuing calling the Doctor."

Luke sighed, and finally resigned, nodding. "Okay."


	7. Temper Tantrums and Panic Attacks

**Torchwood Three**

Don opened his eyes, and met with the sight of Rose staring down at him, cupping his cheek. The she saw him looking at her she leant down and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

"Did we make it?" Don croaked.

She nodded and broadened a smile, but there was a definite sadness in her eyes. Don could see it.

"How's the Doctor?" he asked.

She closed her eyes, obviously struggling not to cry. She didn't answer.

With a grunt Don got to his feet, wavering slightly for a moment before finding his centre of balance. He barely acknowledged Mickey or Ianto as he stepped forward, looking around at the Torchwood Hub. It was the first time he'd been in here.

Finally he turned to Rose, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "Take me to him."

* * *

It was disturbing, on so many levels. The moment Don entered the room with Rose he ignored Jack and Martha, his eyes moving straight to the bed where the Doctor lay completely still. He was covered in tubes, complete with an oxygen mask and a heart rate monitor that made it painfully evident that one of his hearts had stopped.

The sight of the Doctor in the state he was in sent shivers down Don's spine, goosebumps erupting instantaneously on his skin. He even felt the colour rush from his cheeks and he knew his reflection would be ghostly.

This was so much more serious than he had initially presumed.

He forced himself to step forward to stand beside the bed, Jack moving back silently to let him pass. He stared down at the Doctor, for the first time at the right angle to see the thin black lines underneath his skin, spreading out like a maze of veins over his left shoulder, the left side of his chest and beginning to crawl up the left side of his neck.

Don tentatively reached forward and pressed his finger against one of the veins – it felt like a very prominent artery, and in response to his touch the Doctor flinched in unconsciousness. There was a pain reflex. Don swallowed, feeling completely numb all over.

For a moment there was only silence.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Martha suddenly asked, a cracked whisper in the tense silence.

Don slowly shook his head. "Never..."

The silence resumed again and a few moments passed before Don abruptly snapped his eyes away, turned on his heel and made out of the door... as if unable to bear the sight of the Doctor anymore. Martha glanced between Rose and Jack before running out after him, the door clicking quietly shut behind her.

Jack looked at Rose. "You okay?"

She nodded. "... Yeah," she muttered.

"Want some tea?"

She nodded again. Jack smiled and moved to leave the room, but not before he'd given her a quick kiss on the forehead.

"We'll sort this out," he assured her, and left the room.

It was just her and him now.

Almost reluctantly she pulled up a chair, taking a seat next to the unconscious Time Lord and gazing at his impassive face; completely oblivious to her presence. It was just like before.

She took his hand and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. His hands were exactly the same as Don's. Every single line, every single imperfection, the same length, the same form, the same feel. And she knew Don's hands well.

"Rose?" a muffled voice suddenly asked.

Rose blinked and looked up to the Doctor's face – he was looking at her through sunken eyes. She swallowed, before offering a small smile.

"Hey," she said in a voice barely above a whisper, still gripping his hand.

"Hey," he repeated, forcing a smile. "It's good to see you again."

She broadened her smile and without a word, they both leant forward and engaged in a hug. It was then she noticed the definite bump underneath her dress. He pulled back and stared at it pointedly and after a moment she looked down and registered what he was looking at.

"Congratulations," he said quietly. "The metacrisis?"

She nodded... and then suddenly burst into tears.

His eyes widened in alarm and he quickly took her hand. "What is it?"

She sniffed a few times, embarrassed by her sudden explosion of emotion as she tried to regain control of her voice. After a few moments she managed to calm herself down, taking a few breaths before she spoke. "It's dead," she whispered.

The Doctor made no hesitation to reach up and hug her again, though this time in comfort. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she brushed off as best she could. "Should've seen it coming, really. It's our third. They've all been stillbirths. We..." she swallowed, and then began again, speaking from over his shoulder. "We don't know what's causing it. We've both been tested. We're fine."

The Doctor said nothing, just rubbed her back in comfort. She appreciated him not dawdling on the subject, allowing her to express her grief with someone other than Don, who was just as wrecked as she was. After a few minutes she pulled back and raised a small, tentative grin.

"Sorry," she said, laughing.

He just smiled back and brushed back her hair from her eyes. "How did you get here?" he wondered.

"Don fixed the Dimension Cannon," Rose replied. His reaction was nothing like she'd expected...

"What? And you let him?"

Rose blinked, taken aback. "We were worried about you..."

"That thing punches a hole in the universe!" the Doctor yelled angrily.

"But..."

"You're supposed to be responsible for him!" the Doctor continued, drowning her would-be reply. "You let him just punch a hole in the universe just like that?"

Rose stared at him, a fire burning in her eyes as she raised a finger and pointed it straight in his face... "Don't you  _dare,_ don't you  _dare_ accuse me!" she screamed, almost in tears. "You messed everything up from day one! I spent a long time being angry at you, angry at him, angry at my Mum, angry at the whole bloody world because you dumped me there on that beach and just left me! You expected me to just do what I'm told? You made  _everything_ happen! Don't you even  _dare!"_

And with that she turned on her heel and ran out.

The Doctor stared after her, feeling his one working heart sink. He'd never realised... never even  _thought_  that things might not have been flawless between them. He had never created any scenario of a life with Rose other than perfect in his head.

He knew he had to leave. Right now. He couldn't stay here.

He began to disconnect himself from the machines.

* * *

Don had had a panic attack. His psyche was in tatters already from the past five years on the parallel world and the sight of the Doctor like that had been enough to set him off again. His bipolar emotions of Donna's concern and shock at the Doctor looking like that and the Doctor's blasé attitude were clashing and as a result he was sitting on the steps outside of the medical room hugging his knees, trying desperately to regain control with Martha trying to calm him down as best she could.

He hated being like this – unpredictable emotions and when they clashed they were impossible to manage. He ended up having temper tantrums in the middle of a public place at the stupidest of things. He was nothing more than a child. He was five years old with both Donna's memories and the Doctor's 900 years of memories crammed inside his head. The only reason he hadn't burned up and died was because he had the brain support system of a Time Lord – Donna hadn't. His was coping. But barely.

This fault in his psyche had been endurable to start with, but sincefour years ago on the parallel world it was just getting worse and worse. He wasn't meant to exist – the only Time Lord-Human metacrisis in existence, it should have been impossible – and he was paying the price.

He barely noticed Rose running over to him until she collapsed down beside him, engulfing him in a hug. Instantly he turned, and found her crying into his chest. His eyes widened in alarm and he instinctively kissed her in comfort.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently.

"Is something wrong with the Doctor?" Martha asked quickly, anxiously.

"He's a bloody bastard, that's what," Rose replied through tears, feeling comfortable in Don's arms. "He... He told me I should've stopped you, been responsible for you... He got angry."

Don flinched. The Doctor had just unintentionally hit an extremely sore spot...

He kissed Rose again and got to his feet. "I'll sort this out," he said.

Rose looked up in alarm. "No, I should be the one..."

Don stared at her, hard. "Jack's made tea for you. Go and calm down, I'll talk to him."

After a moment she swallowed and nodded, letting Martha give her a hand up and guide her back down to the main Hub. Don turned to the Doctor's door and took a breath, squaring up his shoulders before he stepped forward and entered the room.

* * *

Don found the Doctor sitting on the bed, pulling on a second sock. He stopped dead, brow furrowing.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Leaving," was the Doctor's blunt reply, reaching for his shoe.

"You can't!" Don yelled instantly. "You're really ill and..."

"I shouldn't be here," the Doctor cut over the top of him. "I'll get better. Promise. Where's my other shoe?"

"How the hell should I know?" Don retorted rudely, stepping forward. "You can't leave."

"I can, and I am," the Doctor said bluntly, finally finding his left shoe and pulling it on.

"Stop it."

"No."

"I said stop!" Don practically squeaked.

"No!"

"Stop!" Don yelled with every bit of air from his lungs, feeling his muscles tense, his eyes beginning to water... "Just fucking stop!"

This made the Doctor freeze in mid-movement. He look up at Don for the first time, seeing him on the verge of a mental meltdown... And in return Don could see the Doctor's eyes were red.

For a moment, there was only silence between them.

"You've been crying," Don muttered quietly.

The Doctor looked back down again instantly. "I have to go."

"No," Don replied firmly, grabbing the Doctor's shoe out of his hand and hurling it blindly across the room. "I won't let you."

The Doctor looked at him, and made to stand up...

"Stay down," Don grated, teeth gritted, fists clenched.

The Doctor could see he was serious. Was his own metacrisis about to hit him?

"You made my wife cry," Don said quietly, obviously fighting some kind of internal battle.

The Doctor ran a hand down his face, uncomfortable. "I didn't mean to... I didn't realise..." he paused, and looked up at Don again. "Tell me about the parallel world."

"Only if you don't run off," Don said lowly.

"Fine, I won't," the Doctor replied, hands in the air. "Just tell me."

Don sighed, and took a seat next to the Doctor on the bed, bracing himself for what was about to come before he opened his mouth, and began to explain the past five years on Pete's World.


	8. Like a Romcom

**Pete's World**

_Five years previously..._

The TARDIS de-materialised, leaving the metacrisis and Rose holding hands, looking at each other. Rose stared at him. His eyes, his hair, his outfit, his smile, even the light splattering of barely-there freckles. The freckle on his neck, the one on his ear, the one on his hand. His memories were the same. The way he thought was the same. The way he acted was the same. Besides the dash of Donna's humanity, he was absolutely the Doctor in every aspect.

Except... he wasn't the Doctor.

"What am I supposed to call you?" she wondered.

He laughed. It was the same laugh. The same wrinkles next to his eyes when he laughed. The same light in his eyes.

"I have no idea," he admitted. "Ten and a half?"

He laughed again. She didn't. The joke fell a bit flat.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"Mum." Rose suddenly let go of his hand, turning to her Mother standing behind them, watching. "I wanna go home."

Jackie nodded, glancing between the metacrisis and Rose as she pulled out her phone and dialled for home. The metacrisis looked at Rose. She was purposely avoiding his gaze.

And she barely looked at him for a very long time after.

* * *

"I have all the documents ready to go," Pete was saying at his desk in Torchwood Three a few weeks later, the metacrisis sitting opposite him with his arms folded. "Driving license, birth certificate, the works – I just need your name. Have you thought of one, yet?"

The metacrisis shrugged. "I dunno... John Smith?"

Pete laughed. "C'mon, you can be a bit more creative!"

The metacrisis paused for a moment, contemplating it over. "How about... Donald? Like Don-na and the Do-ctor..."

Pete smiled, and nodded. "No problem. Have you thought of a career, yet?"

"Not yet."

"Well remember there's always a job at Torchwood for you, we could really use you here."

Don shuddered at the mere thought of working for Torchwood – even if it was run by a man he trusted. "No thanks, I'll find my own route."

Pete regarded him for a moment, before nodding and smiling. "I'll have the documents sorted by the end of the day. Welcome to the world, Donald Smith."

* * *

Rose had her own house in the middle of London away from the mansion – wanting her independence. Like a fool Don had assumed that she'd happily welcome him into her life, into her house, even into her bed within a matter of days of the Doctor leaving them here on Pete's world. But it quickly became evident she wasn't so accepting. But he could work on that.

Everyday he turned up at her house; bringing her gifts, cooking her dinner, tidying her house while she was out at work. He knew what she was doing there – she was trying to fix the dimension cannon. She'd never personally mentioned it to him, but he had heard the stories from Pete.

She didn't want  _him._  She wanted the Doctor. She'd only  _ever_ wanted the Doctor. But Don wanted  _her._

So he kept trying. Even though every time she just kept slamming the door on his face. He loved her, and he wasn't going to give up.

* * *

"Welcome back, Don!" the aged-nurse enthused as she caught sight of Don lying in the hospital bed of the ward as she did her rounds.

In the five months since he had arrived on Pete's world, he had been hospitalised at least six times. His immune system was not very immune to begin with – or so he assumed – meaning he was in and out of hospital a lot. He'd had all the diseases – a simple cold turning out to be the flu, turning into all-out pneumonia and consequent hospitalisation. He'd even caught shingles when Tony had brought back chickenpox from school and was in hospital for a week. As a consequence of being in hospital on a monthly basis he grew to know the medical staff very well.

He grinned and waved. "Hello, Leanne," he said happily as she moved over to meet him.

"What caught you this time?" she asked, pulling his clipboard out of the trolley and flicking through.

"Appendicitis," he grimaced, indicating his belly where he'd had the operation.

"Aww you poor love! Do you need anything?"

"I'm bored!" he whined, but was grinning from ear to ear. "Do you need any help?"

Leanne laughed, well used to this by now. "We're a hand short in paediatrics..."

"Perfect!" Don said instantly, making to get up.

"Hold on!" Leanne was saying, laughing, but he was already shifting into the nearest wheelchair and dragging him IV's along with him.

"Let's go, let's go!" Don enthused, and Leanne had no choice but to wheel him towards paediatrics.

* * *

"How are you doing?" Leanne asked as she stepped into the children's playroom where Don was currently helping a four-year-old, Tom, build the biggest Lego house known to mankind.

"Great!" both Don and Tom yelled instantaneously, throwing their arms in the air.

Leanne laughed. "I think Doctor Nichols wants you back in bed, Tom."

The four-year-old's jaw dropped. "But I wanna play with Don!"

Don laughed, patting him on the shoulder. "I think you should do what she says, Tom."

"But... but..."

"No buts!" Don said strictly. "We can finish this later, yeah?"

The smile returned back to Tom's face. "Yeah!" he enthused and got to his feet. Climbing into his wheelchair where he flopped down, exhausted. Don climbed into his and grinned at Tom.

"Hey, we match!" he said happily, gesturing at the chairs.

Tom giggled as one of the nurses wheeled him back to his room along the corridor, and he disappeared.

Leanne turned back to Don. "Thank you for that. That's the happiest he's been for months."

"Glad I could help," Don replied, offering a small smile. "Acute lymphoblastic leukemia?"

Leanne was no longer smiling, looking as though she might cry. "You're familiar with it?"

"I read medical journals," Don replied quickly. "He looks very advanced."

"I'm sorry, patient confidentiality," Leanne said apologetically.

"The treatment has failed, hasn't it."

Leanne didn't say a word.

"It's important to make his life as happy as it can be in the time he potentially has left," Don continued quietly. "Because he's a beautiful thing and he deserves every minute to be amazing. But you can never stop hoping, because that's the worst thing. Because if he does leave us, you want to be assured that you tried everything in your power to save him, and when Mother Nature insisted it was not to be you're comforted by the thought of that last night you spent with him, holding his hand, telling him stories, easing his pain."

Leanne's eyes were teary. "Who did you lose?"

Don looked at her for a moment. "... I think I found a career."

"What?" Leanne asked, wrong-footed.

"I want to be a paediatrician."

* * *

He went as often as he could to Rose's house, pulling out all the stops, all the techniques in the handbook, and eventually she invited him to stay on the sofa late one night. It was like being promoted. Though the sofa was too small and his legs were poking over the other side and his back was aching and his neck at an absurd angle – this was the happiest he'd ever felt on this parallel world so far.

He must've been asleep when Rose left that morning, so when he got up he cleaned up her house and did her grocery shopping, whilst contemplating what he could make her for dinner. When 5pm rolled around he had already settled on exactly what he was going to do... and began to set up to make his spaghetti bolognese – it was the Doctor's Earth cuisine speciality. He always used to cook it for Rose on the TARDIS for a special occasion... she adored it.

He decided to go all-out. He covered the dinner table with a red drape, laid out all the best cutlery, dimmed the lights, candles lit, expensive red wine, Simply Red playing on the hi-fi system. Don wasn't sure how exactly a romantically-themed dinner was supposed to go, but Donna seemed to have some idealisms so he played on them, hoping all human women had an instant love for Simply Red. Because the Doctor side of him wasn't so impressed.

She came in the door at exactly 8pm. Perfect. The dinner was already dished out and ready to be eaten, piping hot. He sat at the table and waited until she turned the corner, and her jaw dropped.

He offered a grin. "Dinner?" he proposed.

There was a very long pause.

"What the hell is this?" Rose finally asked, a little bit rudely.

"Simply Red?" he asked dumbly.

"This is a bloody date, isn't it?"

"No!" he said quickly, rising to his feet in alarm. "It's a celebration! I know what job I'm gonna do."

"And what the hell does that have to do with me?" she yelled.

"I thought maybe... we could... celebrate it together..." he said quietly, slowly, staring at the floor.

"Oh!" she realised, hands on her hips. "Now I get it! You think getting the sofa last night was an open invitation to my bed! _"_

"No, I..."

"I only let you stay here because it was raining outside!"

"Rose..."

"In case my feelings  _aren't_ bloody clear, I  _don't like you!_ You mean absolutely  _nothing_ to me!" she practically screamed. "Get the hell out of my house!"

He decided to leave before she saw him cry.

* * *

The ice cold rain seemed to be out just to get him as he ran through the streets of London towards his destination. There was really only one place he could go. He was going to the only person who he truly felt comfortable around on this world – Jackie Tyler.

He was completely wet through by the time he reached the mansion, taking the secret little-known back route to dodge the security. Finally he made it to the back of the house, seeing a light on in a living room. The blob of blonde hair showed it was Jackie.

Feeling completely numb he knocked on the window, peering inside. Jackie instantly jumped in alarm and turned to the window... and saw him standing out in the rain, hair plastered to his forehead, his expression portraying utter misery. In alarm Jackie shot up and moved to the kitchen adjoining the living room, opening the service door.

"Don," she whispered, staring at the sight of him. "Get in here right now."

* * *

She draped him in a blanket on the sofa, getting him a mug of hot chocolate. Don was crying, and she knew that her daughter was probably part of the cause. If not all of it. It was weird seeing the Doctor cry.

"I've tried everything," he sobbed, shaking. "I did everything right. I know I did."

"Oh, sweetheart," Jackie muttered, bringing him into a hug. "It's not your fault. It's Rose. She's just angry at being left here, she'll come around eventually."

"She wants  _him_ ," Don gasped, beads of his own tears splashing into his hot chocolate. "There's nothing I can do..."

Jackie rubbed his back comfortingly. "Maybe you should try and find someone else?"

"There  _is_ no one else," he whispered, taking a sip from the mug jumping about in his shaking hands. "She was all I ever wanted..."

"Sweetheart, look. You've done so well. You're building a life here. Pete's gonna sort out your qualifications so you can be a paediatrician, you've got a name and credentials and friends, don't you?" she said gently. "Maybe you could meet another woman."

"And lie about who I am?" he asked through the ongoing tears. "I'm still part-alien...  _no one_ is gonna like that, especially after the Cybermen..."

"But you can give it a try, can't you?" Jackie insisted. "And if you meet another woman I promise you I will always be your friend."

He looked at her, red-eyed. "Really?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied with a nod.

He paused, swallowing. "Okay," he whispered, making the decision. "I'll talk to Rose tomorrow... if it's a firm no... I'll find someone else."

Jackie smiled. "That's it, love. Now have a bath and go to bed, you'll catch your death like this."

* * *

He waited on the street he knew she always walked down, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do. Just as she rounded the corner he stepped forward and straight into her path, holding up his arms to stop her.

Rose blinked, before her face turned into combination of loathing and annoyance. "What, you bloody stalking me now?" she snapped.

"Please," he began, lowering his arms and taking a breath. "I love you. I want to be with you. Please..."

"Haven't you got the message yet?" she yelled, dimly aware of all the people standing around staring at them. "I tried telling you nicely, I tried casting you off, I tried yelling at you, but you're still not bloody  _getting_ it, are you? Just stay the hell away from me! I don't want you! You're not him! You're an imposter! So just fuck off, all right?"

She spun on her heel and stepped off the curb the cross the road, leaving Don standing in the middle of the pavement, staring after her blankly.

Then he saw it. In the corner of his eye. It was a bus, speeding towards Rose. It was just like the films – everything went into slow-motion, and as he stared between Rose and bus he quickly realised she hadn't noticed...

There was the screech of brakes, but it was not going to stop in time. Without even thinking he threw himself forward, pushing her out of the way just as the bus slammed straight into him.

Rose whirled around, and screamed. The impact had thrown him ten feet in front of the bus in a knot of limbs, completely out cold with blood spilling onto the pavement. Pedestrians had stopped, staring in shock, pointing at the sight as Rose couldn't even bring herself to move...


	9. How To Operate A Phone

**Torchwood Three**

There was a choked sob from the doorway. The Doctor and Don looked up to see Rose standing there staring at Don, tears in her eyes. Don opened his arms and she al-but fell into them, kissing him deeply. The Doctor watched them for a moment, frowning.

"What happened next?" he asked.

Don simply shrugged. "I don't remember anything until about a year ago."

"You lost three years?" the Doctor asked.

Don nodded, and looked at Rose. She swallowed, and held him tighter in the moment before she spoke.

"He'd broken his spine, his legs..." Rose explained slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. "He was brain damaged and on life support for four months. They wanted to take him off. They said he'd never wake up, and if he did he'd be paralysed for life. But I didn't let them. He was in a coma for eight months. When he woke up he couldn't do anything for himself."

The Doctor grimaced. "How is it now?"

"You've seen me," Don replied quietly. The Doctor just nodded at that.

"Could I scan you to see the extent of the damage?" the Doctor asked. "I'd like to see."

Don shrugged, nonchalant. "Sure. If you can cure it, even better..."

The Doctor grinned. "I can't promise anything, but I'll try my best."

* * *

Much to the Doctor's relief the oppressive Jack and Martha weren't around to tell him to get back into bed as he, Rose and Don went into the TARDIS. The Doctor was somewhat relieved to be back as the TARDIS sent a pang of warmth through him – though he couldn't feel it on the left side of his body. The disease was progressing up the side of his neck and along his jaw – his neck was becoming stiff. He knew his left heart had stopped, but it wasn't hurting. That was something, he supposed.

The Doctor put his metacrisis to sleep before he did the brain scan. Rose sat on one of the infirmary beds, waiting nervously for the Doctor's prognosis. When the scans were finally done after ten minutes of nail-biting tension, the Doctor's face gave no indication to what he thought as he beckoned Rose over to look.

"There's some very obvious damage to his frontal lobe," the Doctor pointed out on the scanner. "From the accident. Looks like a bit of scar tissue has built up as well. The conflicting emotions of me and Donna are causing the damage to rip more and more with every violent emotion he has and the damage itself is causing him to lose control. It's a relentless circle. It's like his brain's been ripped wide open and all of these things are trying to escape and he can't stop it. And..." He suddenly stopped, staring at the scan with narrowed eyes. "... How long was he in a coma for?"

"Eight months," Rose replied quietly.

"... He shouldn't be awake."

Rose blinked. "What?"

"Look at the damage to the cerebral cortex," the Doctor pointed out. "He should  _not_  be walking and talking..."

Rose looked down at her husband's impassive face, tears in her eyes. "Is he gonna die?"

The Doctor paused, turning to stare at her. "He can heal himself, but all these conflicting emotions are doing more damage than he can heal. He is in an extremely bad state. Eventually all this damage will completely shut down his brain."

"Can't you do somethin'?" Rose asked, voice wavering.

The Doctor thought for a moment. "... I could remove some of his memories so he's not so overloaded and they become easier for his brain to handle. The scar tissue can't be removed, though. It looks inoperable."

"Do it," Rose whispered. "Anythin'."

"If I remove his memories he's not going to be the same person when he wakes up," the Doctor warned.

"But he'll live," Rose countered. "Please, save him."

The Doctor nodded, and moved forward to rest the fingers of his one working hand on the side of his unconscious metacrisis' head. He remained perfectly still for about five minutes, before he finally drew away and nodded to Rose.

"I erased everything from my second life to just before the Time War, and Donna's childhood. That's hundreds of years of memories. In time his brain should heal itself and he'll be a lot stronger. I can't do anything about the scar tissue, though. It should stop building now, but it might affect his brain function. It might already be. I can't say anything for sure. But he'll be okay."

Rose's face exploded into a smile, moving forward to engulf him in a hug. "Thank you, thank you so much," she whispered practically in tears. He just smiled, holding her with his one working arm. He'd missed the way she hugged him, the feel of her skin as their necks touched, the smell of her favourite apple shampoo forever entwined in her hair. It had been so long for both of them since they had travelled on the TARDIS together – so many changes... so many things unspoken. Those had been the happiest days of his life.

It was probably selfish to want those days back. He wanted so badly to have her with him again. Although Martha and Donna had been brilliant in their own ways, Rose had always been the unbeaten benchmark. And now he would never have her again. With the events since Davros taking everyone he knew and loved on a different path to him, he knew he wasn't happy anymore. But he didn't matter. As long as she was happy.

"What made you change your mind about him?" the Doctor wondered after a moment.

She pulled back and looked up at him, beaming. "I realised he was a beautiful, amazing person and you were a streak of nothin'."

The Doctor one working heart threatened to seize up and die at her words, but he forced out a genuine-sounding laugh. "Okay," he said, smiling.

"I was so scared, though," she said quietly. "When he woke up it was like he was someone completely different, you know? He couldn't remember me, Mum or anyone. He didn't know who he was. He couldn't feed himself, he couldn't walk. He was just talkin' like a toddler and swearin' and cryin' and wantin' sex every time I was in the room. I quit my job so I could look after him, because I wanted to make up to him all the hurtful things I said."

The Doctor didn't say anything, just let her continue talking, allowing her to vent it all out.

"... It took a year until he finally started rememberin' who he was, by that time I'd given up hope," Rose gave a pained smile through the tears running down her face. "At first he thought he was Donna, he kept saying he was a temp from Chiswick and he thought he had breasts," she said with a small giggle. The Doctor smiled supportively, but didn't comment as she continued. "Then he thought he was a school teacher from 1913 called John Smith and kept askin' for some girl called Joan. Then he thought he was Cassandra..." she let out another choked laugh. "It was mental. He changed who he was everyday for a month until he got to the right one. Then it took another year until he remembered who we were. It was only a year ago he began to recover his personality. I helped him relearn walkin' and readin' and writin' and going to the loo and everythin'."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said quietly, holding her in comfort. "I didn't realise..."

"It's okay," she said, sniffing. "I think I'm better for it. I nearly lost him. When he was back to how he was he apologised for everythin' he did before even though he didn't remember, and he asked me to marry him in the sweetest way. So I did." She paused, and looked down at her swollen belly. She let out another sob at the sight. "And now we can't even have children. It's not fair. This is the third one we've lost." She suddenly looked up at him, hope shining in her eyes. "Can you help us have a child?"

The Doctor's face dropped slightly. He already knew why. "It's Don's Gallifreyan DNA," he said quietly. "It's probably trying to change the embryo's biology, but it ends up killing them."

Rose stared at him. "We're never going to have children?"

"You can keep trying," the Doctor said in a hasty clarification. "But there's only about a 3 percent chance a child will survive to birth, and a 10 percent chance from that that they'll be healthy. I'd hoped this wouldn't be an issue, but it is. I'm sorry, you and Don aren't compatible together. Your only chance is sperm from a donor."

"But I want  _his_  child," Rose whispered.

"There's nothing I can do," the Doctor said quietly. "I'm so sorry."

And if he thought she was crying before, this was a whole new level of crying. It saddened him to see her so torn and depressed, and the fact that he had been the one to deliver the bad news. She shook uncontrollably in his embrace, her tears soaking the front of his shirt, grieving for a child that would probably never be conceived.

Then the phone rang.

Or rather, the mobile Martha had given him. The tinny sound of the ringtone echoed around the TARDIS interior to the infirmary as the Doctor took a moment to realise what it was.

"Blimey," he muttered, getting to his feet. "You gonna be okay?" he asked Rose. She sniffed and nodded, wiping her eyes with her sleeve before he impulsively kissed her forehead and went to the console room without another word.

Typically as soon as he reached out to grab the phone it stopped ringing. Despite that he picked up the phone and flipped it open.

**96 missed calls.**

He blinked, slightly startled. Someone really wanted him. But who? Who else had his number? He wanted to call them back, but he wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to do that on a phone...

The TARDIS door swung open to reveal Martha, panting for air and staring at him in utter relief.

"You should be in bed, Doctor!" she reprimanded, hands on hips. She was therefore surprised when he held up the phone, his eyebrows knotted in confusion.

"How do I call someone back on this?" he asked.

All of Martha's anger quickly dissipated as she suddenly burst into laughter... and then she realised he was serious. "Um, what?"

"I have 96 missed calls," he said, staring at the screen on the phone again. "I think I owe them a call back."

Martha was laughing again, moving forward to take the phone out of his hands and call the person back. "You'd better hope it's not someone offering to replace your windows," she said as she gave it back to him, indicating the green button. The Doctor was blushing, making her giggle even more as he held it to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked. "You were calling me? Sorry, was a bit bus... what? … Where'd she go? … No! Why did she do that? … And how long has it been? … Oh blimey. She... What? That's not good... Yeah, I'm on my way... Tell him to wait in the attic, I'll pick him up... See you in a bit."

He hung up, and ran a hand down his face. Martha stared at him, imploring.

"Sarah's in trouble," he said. "Get Jack, we're going to Canary Wharf."


	10. Goo

The Doctor, Rose, Martha and Jack were all gathered in the console room, the Doctor at the helm as he always had been before. Due to his left arm he had all three of them helping him to pilot, and they were being very gleeful about it too. This was just like when they put the Earth back. Even with the Doctor's illness hampering their happiness it was still fun and a moment not to be forgotten, no doubt about it.

With the flawless teamwork they landed nice and smoothly in a familiar attic in Ealing. Within seconds there was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Luke Smith, Sarah's teenage son, staring around the console room with the same shock and awe as he had before.

"Hey Luke," the Doctor greeted enthusiastically, waving his hand. "Shut the door would you? Don't want a draft."

Luke could only nod once, quickly hopping inside and shutting the door behind him.

Martha, Jack and Rose all looked at him with small smiles as he continued to stare around the interior. He'd been here before of course, but even knowing what it looked like never actually prepared you for standing in it a second time.

"Where to now?" Rose asked, looking at the Doctor.

He seemed to fall silent for a moment, looking at her sadly. "Canary Wharf," was all he said. The look Rose gave him he decided not to acknowledge as he started programming.

* * *

It was freezing cold when they stepped out of the TARDIS into the broken tower in the middle of London. Rose was the last out, shivering in the cold chill and pulling her coat a little tighter around her as she gazed around their surroundings. Not that she could see much – it was shrouded in complete darkness.

Seconds later the Doctor pulled out a pencil torch from his inside jacket pocket, flicking it on. The bright beam of light cut through the darkness to reveal the destruction they were standing in. But was the tower just abandoned since the battle? Or maybe it had been taken over and destroyed by something else entirely...

The Doctor moved forward and raised the torch to a scald mark on the wall – he tentatively licked it – it was the work of a Cyberman. He looked back to the four humans following him, Jack now also having a torch in hand and swinging it around the room to reveal the shine of long since dried blood on the floor.

"Doctor..." Martha suddenly said.

He shone the torch on her to reveal she was looking at the ceiling between them in complete terror. He swung the torch up to where she was looking... and frowned.

"What  _is_ that?" Rose asked in a whisper.

The Doctor didn't have an answer for her. On the ceiling between them was a patch of black gooey substance, dripping quietly down into a small puddle on the floor just below. For a moment the Doctor was tempted to plunge his finger in and have a taste – but that did not seem like a good idea at all.

"I really don't think we should touch that, whatever it is," the Doctor replied in a murmur.

All four of them looked at him with wide eyes. He didn't know what it was?

"Maybe it's from the Howling Halls?" Rose asked, remembering the incident with Elton's Mum what seemed like forever ago.

The Doctor shook his head. "No. It's some kind of... Oh I dunno. It's not a living shadow, it's a lot more... alive than that. I've never seen anything like it."

"Where's Mum?" Luke suddenly asked, looking pleadingly at the Doctor.

The Time Lord nodded, shoving the sonic back in his pocket and retaking the pencil torch. "I'm going to take a guess that she went upstairs to find the origin... and I  _really_ hope I'm wrong."

They strategically stepped around the puddle of goo still dripping from ceiling to floor, and moved to the stairwell. They had landed halfway up the building so they only needed to go up five floors... but to everyone's alarm the Doctor had to stop several times to catch his breath.

The infection was continuing to spread through his lungs, not to mention the fact only one heart was beating meant his entire internal system was being put under an immense amount of strain. By the time they reached the top floor he was coughing chestily, leant on the railing heavily. Thankfully Martha had thought to bring the TARDIS' emergency medical kit and she quickly held an oxygen mask to his face, coaxing him to breathe deeply.

Frankly, it made all of them terrified.

When he had regained his breath he batted Martha away, straightening up to face the lever room door before he stepped forwards, and pushed it open.

Light was streaming in from the large window at the end of the room, illuminating the scene perfectly for them the moment they stepped in. It was the vague shape of a person standing frozen in the middle of a black puddle, the substance covering them from head to toe...

The Doctor grimaced.

"Sarah?" Martha gasped, hand over mouth.

"Mum?" Luke yelled, running forward... but was quickly stopped in his tracked by the Doctor's arm.

"Don't touch it," he said, pointing at the five foot long crack in the far wall currently seeping out the goo.

"Is that..." Jack began, but was completely lost for words.

The Doctor looked back at them, and nodded. "It's coming out of the void. It's a living being that's coming from the void..."

Nobody had a comment for that.

The Doctor moved towards the figure, avoiding the puddles as he finally reached to be within a metre of the person, leaning forward to shed some light on their face. The expression was twisted and warped... but it was unmistakably a scream of pure, undivided terror. He couldn't tell from the face alone, but a quick glance at the sonic lipstick in her left hand and the handbag over her shoulder denoted that this was indeed Sarah Jane Smith.

"Oh, Sarah," he whispered, almost wanting to reach up and touch her. "I'm so sorry."

She didn't reply. Not that the Doctor had ever thought she would. He quickly put the pencil torch between his teeth and rummaged one-handed in his inside pocket to bring out the sonic, flicking it on and holding it up to the black goo that coated her aged but eternally beautiful face.

Suddenly the goo surged towards him, wrapping around the sonic and completely immobolising it. Before he even had a chance to react the goo had already welded his thumb to the switch of the sonic to put it permanently on, the low buzzing sound lost in the thickness of black...

"Doctor!" all the companions instinctively yelled, wanting to help him but what the hell could they do?

The black goo was travelling fast up his arm, the limb completely frozen as if encased in concrete. The Doctor was panicking slightly, trying desperately to pull his arm free but he knew it wasn't about to happen. It spread out up his shoulder and wrapped itself around his chest, squeezing tightly...

"Sarah?" Rose's voice suddenly yelled from the side of him and he looked to find Sarah only being held up by goo around her legs, her eyes shut.

Whatever it was, was moving off of Sarah and covering him instead, leaving her unconscious... or perhaps dead? He couldn't even tell. It was travelling down his legs now and up his neck...

"It's attracted by sonic waves!" the Doctor yelled through gritted teeth, struggling to keep his head aloft. "You need to..."

Then it spread up over his mouth, leaving him frozen in mid-sentence.

"Need to what?" Jack yelled, eyes wide. "What do we need to do?"

Frantically the Doctor's eyes darted around, his voicebox humming but no words were coming out. All the goo in the room was sliding towards him – towards the sonic – jumping up onto his hand, spreading across his limbs and face. With a thud Sarah collapsed to the floor as the substance completely left her, the people who weren't staring in horror at what was happening to the Doctor efficiently moving to check she was alive.

The Doctor's legs were completely consumed in black now, and then his eyes stopped moving, suddenly frozen in place beneath the goo as all that remained was his left arm dangling paralysed by his side, but the goo was moving to take that as well.

Out of nowhere Luke suddenly dived forward through the hysterical companions, wrenching his mother's sonic lipstick from her grip. With a quick pull he wrenched off the housing and jammed it on, the lipstick exploding into huge sonic life. Instantly the goo jumped towards him, but he was ready. He dived into a roll and landed on his feet, dodging the goo completely.

Before it could turn around to have another go he pulled back his arm and threw the lipstick straight through the crack in the wall and into the void.

Without any hesitation the goo followed through the crack, leaving absolutely no trace of it ever being there before. The seriousness of the situation that they'd just escaped didn't register for a moment, not until the Doctor quietly collapsed in front of them, the sonic he had been holding finally shutting off and rolling out of his limp hand across the floor.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled and leapt forward to check him, very quickly joined by Jack. She checked his right heart – it was going. She could fell him exhaling on her hand when she hovered it above his mouth too. He was fine, just unconscious, it seemed.

"Sarah's okay," Martha announced after a few short moments, and collectively they sighed a great sigh of relief. "Get them both back to the TARDIS."

"What the hell was that?" Rose asked, staring at the crack in the wall as if expecting the strange creature to suddenly leap back out and smother her...

"I think the more important question here is how long until it comes back  _out_  of the void?" Jack pointed out as he stooped to pick up the Doctor's unconscious form, though his eyes were firmly fixed on the crack.

"What's the void anyway?" Martha asked.

"The Doctor said... it's the space between dimensions," Rose muttered, still trying to work things out in her head. "There's just nothin' there... he said there was no up or down or space or light or time or matter..."

"Nothing can live there," Jack surmised quietly.

"But... That thing came  _out_ of the void," Luke croaked.

All four humans looked at each other, and swallowed.


	11. It's A Four Thing

Don woke up.

He'd woken up many, many times before, but this time things were different; a bit fuzzy, sounds merging into one another. But something was happening – the sound of some kind of commotion. He turned his head to look to his right... a figure on a bed, surrounded by a few people... one with blonde hair.

"Rose?" Don asked instantly to the spinning world around him.

All of the figures suddenly turned to look at him, and the blonde one quickly rushed forward, a smile swimming into focus as she sat on the bed beside him.

"How are you?" she asked.

Don frowned. "What was I...?" he paused, trailed off, as suddenly he realised he didn't have a headache. Why didn't he have a headache? He always had a headache... "Rose?" he tried again.

"Yeah, it's me," she said gently, kissing him briefly. "The Doctor fixed your head."

"It doesn't hurt," Don told her, staring up at her with wide eyes. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

She laughed joyously and kissed him again, holding him tightly. This would probably take a while for him to order his thoughts... and for it to sink in. For him and for her. "Yeah he fixed you."

He pushed himself to sit up and instinctively held Rose in return, only to find Martha and Jack staring at him with smiles on their faces. "What's the occasion?" he wondered.

Rose just laughed, and kissed him yet again. He was enjoying this. Then he caught sight of the brown suit through the crowd of people on the next bed. It could really only be one person... He jumped to his feet, rushing over to lean over the Time Lord.

"What happened?" he asked, staring at the unconscious Doctor.

"Long story," Jack muttered, still gazing at Don. Was he about to freak out?

"And Sarah!" Don suddenly realised, tearing over to the human in the bed next to the Doctor and screeching to a halt next to Luke, resting his fingers on her neck. "That's well weird," he said, checking her over. "Some kinda nutrient absorption?"

He looked at the others, as if expecting an answer. None of them had an answer to give.

"What happened?" he tried instead.

Martha was the one to explain what had gone on in the Canary Wharf tower. As she explained, Don's eyebrows got progressively higher and higher on his head until she thought they would disappear into his hairline. When she'd finished he just stared at her, biting his lip.

"That's impossible," he whispered, and then caught his own words, frowning. "Well obviously it isn't, but... this isn't right."

He did look very worried, Rose noted. She stepped forward and rested a hand on his arm. "What is it?"

He looked at her a for a moment, before suddenly dropping down to lie on his back in the middle of the floor and closing his eyes.

"Umm..." Rose began. "What are you..."

"Shush," he said, still with his eyes closed. "Thinking."

Jack, Martha, Luke and Rose all looked at each other, frowning slightly. Thankfully at that precise moment the Doctor stirred, groaning his way to consciousness as his eyes flickered open.

"That was a really unpleasant experience," he muttered, pushing himself to sit up before looking around at the people gathered around the bed... and then to the metacrisis lying on the floor with his eyes closed. "... Is he all right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Thinking," Jack explained, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Okay," the Doctor replied, equally speaking like it was the most normal thing in the world. He caught their blank expressions, and grinned. "He's going through a Four thing."

That was a bit lost on them too, so instead he decided to change the subject completely.

"Where did that creature go?" he asked.

"Back into the void," Jack replied. "Luke ripped the housing off of the sonic lipstick and threw it back through the hole – the thing followed."

"Really? Oh good boy!" the Doctor enthused, beaming as he looked at Luke... who was blushing. "Well done."

"Thanks," he replied, still completely red.

"How's Sarah?" the Doctor asked, looking through the crowd to Sarah on the next bed.

"Vitals are fine," Martha assured him. "She's just unconscious." She paused, thinking some more before she spoke next. "It's like something's... Well..."

"... Drained her of her life force?" the Doctor suggested quietly.

Martha nodded slowly. "Do you know what that black stuff is?"

The Doctor pulled a face, reaching up to scratch a sideburn with his working hand. "Not really, but now we know what it's capable of we can..."

Suddenly Don sat up, his finger pointing straight up into the air with a ridiculously large smile on his face. "Perogatinion sonic manipulator!" he yelled, making everyone almost jump a foot in the air.

"We don't have one," the Doctor replied simply.

"Ah," Don said, and quickly laying back down again and closing his eyes.

The Doctor continued as if the interruption had never occurred. "We can start anticipating its moves. What do we know about it?"

"It's from the void," Rose said.

"It's black and squelchy," Martha noted.

"It's attracted by sonic waves," Luke said.

"Stepping in it ain't a good idea," Jack finished.

"Feragi's anti-matter assembler!" Don yelled.

"Haven't got one," the Doctor replied. Don sighed and laid back down again.

The Doctor continued, "I think it's exploring... it lives in void, some kind of creature we can't even fathom... unknown to this Universe. It finds the gap Torchwood made and decides to explore. It finds this world. Whether it knows it's causing harm or not is an entirely different question, but it cannot exist in the known Universe... It doesn't belong here. There's no telling what damage it could do. It might even rip open the rift and cause this entire planet to get sucked inside... Or shatter the entire Universe. We have to stop it."

"Can't we just seal up the gap?" Martha asked, frowning.

The Doctor looked at her, almost pitifully.

"Sash of Rassilon!" Don shouted again.

"Haven't got it," the Doctor dismissed. Don laid back down again. "Can't seal it up completely and besides, it's already halfway through," the Doctor explained. "We need to... go inside the void."

"But how?" Rose wondered. "The TARDIS?"

"She wouldn't be able to sustain that long enough," the Doctor replied.

"Wait, lemme get this straight," Jack said, raising a hand slightly in the air. "You're gonna go in there and... talk to it?"

"Is there any other way?" the Doctor asked, quite genuinely.

Jack thought for a moment. "I guess not, but..."

"I'll find us a happy talking medium," the Doctor assured him. "It's only curious; I'm sure of..."

"Void ship!" Don yelled.

"No, we don't have a..." Everyone gazed at the Doctor as he suddenly trailed off, blinking slightly. "Wait... yes we do."

"We do?" Jack repeated in a question.

"Torchwood," the Doctor said, looking at the people around him as Don sprang upright, hopping from foot-to-foot eagerly. "The void ship the Daleks used..."

"Didn't it get sucked in when you closed the breech?" Rose asked.

He shook his head. "It doesn't exist... there's no atoms for the void stuff to cling to... It's still here in this tower somewhere. We need to find the void ship."

* * *

They had left Sarah behind, Luke and Martha opting to stay with her to look after her. The Doctor had tried to make the others stay behind too so he could go on his own – not that his argument got anywhere. So they all made their way down to the chamber the void ship had been in – the very place the Daleks had come out from all those years ago.

They reached the room, stepping through one of the holes in the walls made by the intensity of the battle. Raj's dead body was still lying on the floor – drained completely of life. They all made a wide berth around it as they got to the end of the room where the void ship sat. It was still open. The Doctor stopped, pulling a face as he looked up at it.

"Still looks functional," he muttered. The others were completely silent, glancing between each other and the Doctor for a moment...

"Right, allons-y!" the Doctor suddenly yelled, flying up the step ladder and leaping inside the open void ship. Don quickly followed, and then, with some slight uncertainty, Jack and Rose followed.

Rose clambered inside last, gazing at its interior with wide eyes. It was strange in the ship. There were no seats, no visible lights, just some kind of control panel which the Doctor was currently tapping away on with his one working hand and a monitor placed just above it. She gasped a breath and quickly huddled up next to Don as there was a sudden hissing sound and the ship began to close... and within seconds the last slice of light disappeared and they were all plunged into complete and utter darkness.

"Hold a sec," the Doctor's voice assured them in the dark, and soon after some weak lights came up, enough so they could at least all see each other. They all looked at the Doctor, who pulled a reassuring half-grin and tapped a button on the panel. There was no sensation of movement, but the monitor on top of the control panel showed the Torchwood interior passing them by, taking them back up to the rift.

"And we're off," Don whispered in the half-light, staring sightlessly ahead of him.

Rose held him a little tighter.

* * *

The monitor wasn't doing very much, not that they had ever expected it would. They were in the void now, floating through with no direction... No light, no dark... No passage of time. All of them were gripped in utter silence, but none were more tensed than the Doctor or Don.

The Doctor wasn't sure why he was so worried. Tell it that it shouldn't be trying to get through the crack, then leave. That was the plan. Simple, yes?

Though his plans did have a habit of escalating somewhat.

The tense silence continued for another length of time wherein nothing happened. It was Rose who broke the silence, still gripping onto Don as tight as she could. "Where is it?"

The Doctor didn't answer, still tapping at the controls. Not that they were doing anything. Don knew and he knew that this display was nothing more than a reassurance for the terrified humans sitting in the ship with them – pretending he had some sense of control over the situation. They were nothing more than sitting ducks... and didn't he know it.

But then suddenly the ship jolted. Rose shrieked in surprise and Jack yelled out in a cry of shock, but all Don did was look at the Doctor questioningly. The Doctor nodded almost imperceptibly at him, closing his eyes...

There came another jolt, this time throwing them all to the right side of the ship. Rose shrieked again and held tightly onto Don...

"What the hell is that?" Jack yelled in a question, struggling to his feet – but he might as well have not bothered as after jolt sent him crashing into the floor... that had previously been the ceiling.

"Hold onto each other!" the Doctor yelled and made a lunge for Rose but missed as the entire ship span like a crazy fairground ride. The lights began to flicker and for a moment they were stunned... but quickly brought back to reality with another massive jolt.

"How can it touch us?" Jack yelled, fumbling in the dark and finding someone's arm. He held on with all his might. "We don't exist in here!"

The Doctor didn't even have a chance to open his mouth before a voice suddenly shrieked in the dark...

" _TIME LORD!"_

"Who is that?" the Doctor yelled back up.

" _CONSUME!"_

"What are you?" the Doctor shouted in no particular direction as the ship jolted again and there were several more crashes as all four of them smacked into the nearest side. The voice seemed to be coming from all around them... Coming out the walls...

" _STOLEN!"_

"What's stolen? Tell me so I can help you!"

" _FIND WHAT HAS BEEN TAKEN!"_ the voice rasped.

"Tell me what's been taken!" the Doctor yelled, and with another crash suddenly the top of the ship was dented inwards just above his head... Don was scrambling for the monitor, trying to see if there was something visual...

" _TIME LORD!"_ it shrieked again.  _"SELFISH TIME LORD!"_  The ship span head over heels and suddenly the Doctor realised... if it continued, the ship would get ripped wide open...

"Please stop!" the Doctor cried. "Let me help you!"

" _FIND THE EYE!"_

"The eye? Who's eye?"

" _SELFISH TIME LORD!"_

"Please talk to me!" the Doctor yelled, the cries and yelps that had been going on inside the capsule were now gone. Jack, Rose, Don... were they okay? "Please stop!"

" _I WILL CONSUME!"_ the voice shrieked... and with one final lurch the ship crashed again and the Doctor heard more than felt his head smack into the side as it resounded around the ship's interior...

And everything went black.


	12. Nothing Like ET

There was a bright white light shining into Rose's eyes... and she had no idea what it was. Soon her senses started to realign themselves and she realised there was some kind of beeping to her left and lots of shapes above her...

"She's human, with no anomalies. But the foetus contains foreign DNA," a voice said, although muffled. "Very strong possibility of rape and implantation, looks like it's dead, however..."

"Extract it and test it," another voice said, also muffled. "Do we have a DNA match for the alien?"

"Partial," the first voice replied. "Perhaps the alien hybrid?"

It took a while for Rose to realise that the beeping was a heart rate monitor and the shapes were people...

People dressed in white hazard suits with large helmets, looking down at her.

"She's awake," a voice said.

With a quickly rising panic she looked around the room... It was a hospital room, definitely, but the place was wrapped with white sheets and transparent zip doors... She was in quarantine. Why the hell was she in quarantine? Hadn't they been in the void ship?

"What's goin' on?" she demanded to know, but the people above her simply pushed her back down to lay on the bed.

"Calm down, we know you've had a traumatic experience..." one of the men in the suits began, much to Rose's confusion.

"What? Tell me what's going on? Where's the Doctor, Don and Jack?"

"You can identify it?" one of the men in the suits asked.

"Identify what? Take me to them!"

And then there was a scream from somewhere very close... Rose would recognise it anywhere. That could only be the Doctor... or Don.

She leapt into action, jumping onto her feet and grabbing a scalpel from a tray as she pulled off all of the pads and wires connecting her to the machine. It flat-lined in the process as she turned back to the men in white hazard suits, teeth gritted.

"Take me to him!" she grated, the scalpel held high in the air in what she hoped was a threatening manner.

"Security!" one of the men yelled and quickly Rose realised she was very, very defeated. That was until the door burst open to reveal a half-naked Jack Harkness holding a handgun with a charismatic smile in place, all pearly white teeth shining despite the bright lights. Rose breathed a sigh of relief... and then realised she was wearing a very little amount of clothes.

"Sorry, they're taking a quick nap," Jack informed the men in white suits casually, gesturing for Rose to move over to him. "We'll be going, now."

He took Rose's arm and pulled her over the door's threshold, still pointing the gun at the men as he reached forward and grabbed a blanket from the side, handing it to Rose who quickly covered herself. Jack slowly backed up and shut the door, locking it with a key before he grabbed Rose's hand and led her down the corridor.

"Jack what the hell is goin' on?" Rose whined as they jogged down the corridor, private hospital rooms spread out evenly along the corridor on each side.

"Wish I knew," was Jack's only reply on the matter, suddenly stopping her and pushing her up against the wall, checking their surroundings. "You all right?" he asked.

"Fine," she replied. "Where's the Doctor and Don?"

"We're gonna find them," Jack assured her. "Did you hear the scream?"

She nodded. "Over there somewhere..." She pointed, and Jack followed her finger... only for it to somehow cue another scream of pain. Rose could now hear the voices of personnel talking frantically between themselves... But there was another voice in the chaos of everything else, quiet and begging...

"Please stop..." it was saying. "Please.. you're hurting him..."

Rose was alert instantly. "Oh my god, Don."

Jack simply nodded and grabbed her hand again, pulling her down the corridor until they reached a door on the right, covered in the white quarantine sheets. With no hesitation Jack entered the room with Rose in tow, pulling her down to hide behind a table.

Rose scoured the room. The Doctor and Don were lying restrained on beds attached to a million tubes and pads, Don looking as though he were about to cry, and the Doctor in quite obvious pain.

Jack felt Rose tense next to him, but he rested a warning hand on her shoulder – forcing her to stay down and watch.

"I told you I have no idea what you're talking about!" the Doctor was yelling, struggling against the bonds keeping him on the bed.

"We know this is your doing, alien, don't lie to us!" a man said, and neither Jack nor Rose could see what they did but another scream of pain ripped out of the Doctor as a consequence.

"I was trying to fix it!" the Doctor gasped. "Call UNIT! They'll tell you who I am!"

"Tell us how to reverse it!" the man yelled. "You've got its markings all over you!"

"I don't know!" Another scream of pain.

"He's telling you the truth," Don said quietly. "Please..."

Another scream of pain. Jack couldn't watch this for much longer. He tapped Rose on the shoulder, and gestured. In seconds he dived out from behind the table, pointed the gun above him and shot it in the air. There were several shrieks of alarm and the men in white suits scattered like scared mice.

"Get the hell in the corner!" Jack yelled, pointing his gun at them. "Or I'll shoot all of you!"

The men quickly obliged and Jack beckoned for Rose to free the Doctor and Don. She ran over to them, still holding the blanket around her as she fumbled one handed for the catches holding Don down. He was physically shaking as he looked up her with wide eyes.

"Rose..."

"It's okay," she said quickly, undoing the last of the restraints and helping him to sit up.

"My head hurts..." he gasped, tears streaming down his face. Rose's heart skipped a beat. The damage the Doctor had repaired... his brain was ripping wide open again... they had to get him out of here before the damage was irreparable...

"Don't think about it," she said, kissing him on the lips before reaching to the blanket at the end of the bed and giving it to him. "Calm down. Everything's gonna be okay. Go to Jack."

He nodded and covered himself, moving to Jack as Rose went to the Doctor. Jack watched as one of the men in the corner – the one who had been torturing the Doctor – bristled slightly, eyes darting between Jack and the Doctor...

Jack swung his gun down and shot him in the leg without remorse. The man shrieked in pain and collapsed to the floor, and the rest of the men looked on in fear.

"Anyone else wanna try anything?" Jack wondered.

None of them moved an inch as the man on the floor continued to scream in pain, just as he had made the Doctor.

Rose helped the Doctor to sit up, but he was completely unfocused. Rose could see marks where'd they'd taken skin samples and holes in his skin where they had taken his blood – and judging by the table at the end of the room they'd taken litres upon litres of it as well...

In disgust she moved forward to the table of samples and pushed it, making it collapse to the floor where all of the samples smashed into an unusable puddle on the floor. She moved back to help the Doctor stand up, wrapping her own blanket around him – he was in far more need of it than her at that present moment.

As she helped him back to Jack the ex-Time Agent nodded as her, gesturing for them all to stand behind him whilst he kept his gun trained on the men in the corner. The man on the floor was now just whimpering quietly.

"Now, details," Jack began. "Why were you torturing my friend?"

No one of them answered. Jack raised his gun up in the air again and fired off another shot, causing the men to jump in shock before he lowered it to them as before.

"Let me say that again, maybe you didn't hear," Jack said, smiling casually he moved the gun to point at one of the men, staring at him with a piercing gaze. "You. Shorty. Why were you torturing my friend?"

The man swallowed, staring at Jack fearfully before he wimped out and stared at the floor. "He's an alien," he said, as though that explained everything.

"So?" Jack asked.

"We thought he could be connected."

"Connected to what?"

The man stared at him for a moment. "... The Darkness Incarnate."

Jack glanced at the other three, who nodded in turn.

"Is this sort of, black goo?" Jack asked. The man nodded in reply. "How far has it spread?"

The man just gestured to the nearest window. Jack directed Rose with his head, who went over to the window and pulled back the curtain.

"Oh my god..." she whispered, and looked back at the other three. "The sky. It's black. Completely black."

"We can't have been gone that long..." Jack muttered, frowning.

"When did this start?" the Doctor suddenly asked, leant against the wall looking very pale indeed.

"Two months ago," the man replied.

Jack, Rose and the Doctor looked at each other, feeling very cold. Don however, simply stared vacantly into space, the blanket wrapped tightly around him.

"You came out of the middle of the Darkness in a spaceship and crashed in the middle of London," the man continued, now getting slightly more confident that he wasn't about to get shot. "The public were terrified, we found you in the wreckage of the ship and brought you here. You were unknown lifeforms... just like the Darkness Incarnate," he directed this to the Doctor and Don. "So we thought you could be connected."

"What happened to the ship we were in?" the Doctor asked in a breathy voice.

"I didn't see it, but I don't think there was much left of it," the man replied. "You are all very lucky to be alive and escape pretty much uninjured."

There was a momentary pause as this all sank in. The Darkness was spreading without hindrance, and if its attitude to them in the void was anything to go by, it wasn't going to stop...

"We have to go back into the void," the Doctor realised. "We have to stop the Darkness before it consumes everything..."

The man with a bullet in his leg suddenly yelled a kamikaze yell and dived for Jack. Jack yelped in surprise and instinctively aimed his gun down and shot him in the back. Don suddenly shrieked an almost inhumane shriek, backing up against the wall as he started shaking...

Rose jumped to him instantly and held him in a very tight hug, but it only served to make her feel his trembles even more. He lost all strength in his legs and slid to the ground, tears cascading down his cheeks...

In the commotion Jack didn't realise security had woken up from their nap and had come crashing through the door. They quickly disarmed the ex-Time Agent and held him in restraint, pinning him to the floor. Another two grabbed the Doctor and held him up against the wall, pressing an arm against his neck.

"We have to go..." the Doctor gasped, but no one was listening to him.

"NO!" Don was curled into a ball and screaming his lungs out, head buried in his hands. He freaked out even more when one of the security pulled Rose away from him and fresh tears erupt, his breathing quickly turning into hyperventilation.

"Let him go!" Rose demanded, but like the Doctor, no one was listening to her either. The security were trying to grab Don and he was just shaking more and more...

"Let him calm down!" the Doctor tried, but the only reply he got was being dragged forcedly out of the room and down the corridor. The one holding Rose was also trying to drag her, but she was resisting with all her might...

"No!" she screamed, and the metacrisis began to fit. It was happening again... His brain was going to rip in two... "Please let him go!"

She didn't even get to see what they did next as security finally managed to drag her out the door screaming and kicking.


	13. Trapped

"Call UNIT!" Jack was yelling, hammering on the door holding them in containment, trying to be heard. "They'll tell you everything! We need to leave!"

"Jack," the Doctor said slowly, knowing it was completely useless and verbally urging Jack to realise that too.

In truth, Jack  _had_  already realised it... But he felt better knowing he was trying to do something rather than sitting doing nothing. Still, he sighed, pulling back from the door and looking at the Doctor and Rose huddled on the single unmade bed, cuddling together under the one blanket they had for warmth. After being taken from quarantine they had been locked into a private hospital room on the top floor whilst the officials decided what to do with them. Don had not appeared since what had happened earlier.

The only good thing in amongst their current mess of a situation was that the Doctor's infection had began to recede to the point where he had limited use of his left arm again, which he was currently embracing Rose with. At least he was getting better, now. Maybe his left heart would start up again soon, Jack couldn't help but hope as he moved to the other two, dropping to sit on the bed in front of them.

For a moment there was only silence. And it really  _was_ silence. There were no cars chugging along in the background, no stray voices calling out into the night, not even any wildlife calling out. The world previously so busy with the rush of human and other animal life alike had become completely dark, cold and silent.

"Why aren't we freezin' to death?" Rose wondered suddenly, looking out through the window above their heads to the pure black sky above. "Coz the Sun isn't comin' through?"

"The creature is containing most of the heat, trapping it in," the Doctor replied. "Like a giant blanket around the Earth."

"That's not good, is it."

"No," the Doctor replied, grimacing. "The human race can't live in these conditions for very long. We're looking at a couple of months, at the most."

"How did it get to this?" Jack suddenly asked, but it was a question aimed in no particular direction.

"Do you mean your life in general or right now?" the Doctor wondered. "Because I don't think I can answer that first one."

Rose giggled through her shivers as Jack beamed happily. "A couple of hundred years ago I had a stable job and a sex buddy and now I've got..." He paused to consider this, frowning slightly. "Well, about the same really, but that's not the point..."

Rose and the Doctor both laughed, and it took a moment for Jack to realise how long it had been since he'd heard the Doctor laugh. He'd never noticed before, but the Doctor's laugh genuinely made him a little bit more content.

Grinning slightly, he continued, "I was a great conman. Why did I give it up again?"

"To travel in time and space with two really great people?" Rose wondered.

"Yeah, you seen them around anywhere?" Jack asked cheekily in reply.

More laughs filled the cell... but then the Time Lord's eyebrows lowered in confusion as Jack's eyes suddenly averted to a point above the Doctor's head, and his entire expression fell

The Doctor turned to see what he was looking at.

"Move!" he yelled, grabbing Rose by the shoulders and pushing her off the side of the bed where they both fell into a heap on the floor, Rose squealing a protest.

"What..." she began as she pushed him off, but her next word quickly died in her throat as she realised what he had just saved her from. The black goo, the Darkness Incarnate was coming in through the window... slowly trickling through the weak point between the frame of the window and the wall... but it was getting faster like a river breaking its banks, making distinctive slurping sounds as it moved...

By the time Rose had got up from the floor the Doctor and Jack were already trying to break down the door of the room but to absolutely no avail. Was something blocking the other side? Jack tried ramming it with his shoulder and giving it a firm kick but it became increasingly obvious it was not going to open.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled and the Doctor spun around to find the Darkness Incarnate had already moved down the window's wall and was beginning to flood the entire room, creeping slowly but surely towards their feet.

"Let us out!" Jack was yelling, hammering on the door exactly as he'd done before. "It's an emergency!"

No one was there.

The Doctor grabbed Rose and pushed her behind him, tensing his entire body as the Darkness continued to progress towards them... There was nothing they could do. They were trapped. Jack finally stopped hammering on the door and turned to see it was but a metre away from them... They were going to die.

The Doctor was tensed, Rose gripping onto his arm as Jack closed his eyes...

Then it stopped. But the ordeal was far from over. It was beginning to build into a mound in front of them, getting bigger and bigger as the seconds trickled by – but they had nowhere to run. They found they could only watch as it built and built and manifested into recognisable facial features... but it was like something out of a Hollywood film. A pointed chin, narrowed eyes, horns and slits for nostrils until finally it reached a stage of perfect recognition – a giant demonic face as tall as the room itself made entirely out of the Darkness, staring down at them with a simple, evil smile.

"Let me help you!" the Doctor was yelling, but even he knew the futility. Still, he seemed to be the only one of the three capable of speech as Rose commenced screaming and Jack was so paralysed it was as though he were frozen on the spot. "You said you wanted an eye? What kind of eye?"

It didn't reply. It simply pounced.

The Doctor grabbed Jack and Rose and pushed them out of the way just in time as the black demonic face slammed into the door and burst on impact, the substance now covering the entire door and only leaving the three a little island of clean floor to stand in.

"Jump!" the Doctor yelled and made a frantic leap for the bed, scrambling up to stand on the mattress. Seconds later the other two followed, and the Darkness quickly consumed the little island they'd been stood in.

"What the hell is going on in here?" a voice suddenly yelled and the door opened...

"No don't!" the Doctor yelled, but it was too late. The Darkness quickly spilled through the door and covered the man's right shoe and a scream of complete, undivided agony tore from his throat as he pulled out his foot again... but there was only a skeleton foot left on the end of a fleshy leg where the Darkness had consumed him.

The screams that followed quickly died as the Darkness moved up his entire body to encase him in the blackness, freezing him in mid-scream... and quickly dispersed to leave a skeleton to collapse to the floor with a clatter of bone on flooring. Another few moments, and the Darkness covered the skeleton. When it flattened out... there was no skeleton to be seen.

Then the Darkness turned its attentions back towards the three standing on the bed, and began to climb the legs of the bed's structure. The bed dropped a little, the Doctor grabbing Rose as she shrieked and almost fell off. It was  _eating_ the bed!

The Doctor quickly looked around for any possible escape... and as luck would have it there was a ventilation shaft directly above them.

"Get it open!" he yelled, reaching up to grab the ridge as did Jack. Rose screamed again and grabbed onto the Doctor when the bed dropped a little more, trying desperately not to fall off. The blackness was now at least a foot deep across the whole of the room. It was advancing, and quickly.

Finally the shaft opened and the Doctor and Jack both grabbed Rose in the midst of her screams, holding her up into the shaft. She grabbed the side and quickly clambered out of view.

The bed sank a little more. The Darkness was coming over the sides of the mattress and straight towards their feet. Jack was quick to grab the Doctor's legs and hold him clear of the Darkness and up to the shaft...

Then Jack began to scream. It was a shrill, ear piercing scream of absolute and complete agony that almost shattered the Doctor's eardrum. The Time Lord instinctively looked down... the Darkness was covering Jack's feet, advancing up towards his knees but he adamantly kept holding the Doctor up clear of the Darkness, as he screamed and screamed and screamed...

Frantically Rose grabbed the Doctor's arms and helped him up into the shaft. The Doctor quickly offered a hand down to Jack and grabbed his arm, pulling him up with every nugget of strength he could muster; Rose supporting the Doctor by wrapping her arms around his middle and pulling him back. Eventually Jack's head appeared, but he was still screaming,  _crying_ in pain. They finally got him completely clear and Rose saw the skeletal remains of Jack's legs, poking out from bloody stumps of where the thighs had been...

Her next action was more of a reaction, and completely warranted. She fainted clean away.

Thankfully it only took a few moments until Jack's feet regrew into their normal flesh and blood, and he finally stopped screaming, only gasping to try and get his breath back.

The shaft creaked, and began to sag. The Darkness was coming. This was no time for pleasantries.

"Let's go!" the Doctor yelled, grabbing the unconscious Rose and hauling her onto his back (which was slightly more difficult than it looked, as Rose's womb was still very swollen with the foetus inside) before he began to crawl through the shaft as fast as he could, hearing Jack close behind him.

They continue full pelt for at least one hundred metres, leaving the both of them completely out of breath.

"Where is it?" the Doctor yelled back to Jack.

"It's well behind us!" Jack replied, and the Doctor brought himself to a stop, carefully lying the unconscious Rose down before he sat and attempted to regain his breath.

"Fuck," Jack cursed, and the Doctor did not reprimand him for swearing as he dragged his hands down his face. "What..."

"I don't know," the Doctor said simply, feeling very shaken. "It's growing in power as it eats and eats... And it's only just getting started... It's going to eat this entire universe..."

Jack stared at him. "What the hell do we do?"

"I don't know," the Doctor said again. "I really,  _really_ don't know." He moved his gaze to Jack's newly reformed legs, and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm scared," he admitted.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I've crapped myself," Jack replied truthfully. "Where do we go now?"

There was a moment as the Doctor thought. Was  _anywhere_ safe? "The TARDIS," he finally replied. "It's the safest place, there we can figure out..."

But he was interrupted by a new voice, echoed and distant – a high-pitched, haunted singing in a simple nursery rhyme tune coming from somewhere quite distant...

"Zagreus sits inside your head..." it sang. "Zagreus lives among the dead... Zagreus sees you in your bed... And eats you when you're sleeping..."

The Doctor's eyes widened as Jack sat up, attentive. "That's Don!" Jack realised. "Who's Zagreus?"

"Someone he really shouldn't be singing about," the Doctor murmured. "His brain is collapsing, we need to get him back to the TARDIS right now." And with that he took hold of Rose and hauled her onto his back again, making sure she was secure as he began to move... but not before Don's haunted nursery rhyme came once more, echoing through the shaft.

"Zagreus at the end of days... Zagreus sets the skies ablaze..."

The shaft began to creak again, and both the Doctor and Jack checked over their shoulders... the Darkness was creeping towards them, its intent clear as it advanced closer and closer, gaining with every single inch...


	14. 998

Time slowed to a crawl as the darkness advanced but the Doctor's voice broke through the cloud of indecision, jogging them into action.

"Move!" the Doctor yelled, and began to crawl as fast as he could towards the direction of the singing voice.

"Zagreus comes when time's a maze... And all of history's weeping..."

"Here!" the Doctor suddenly shouted, stopping in front of a square piece of grating that afforded a view into another hospital room below... Don was alone, lying in a bed linked to a dozen machines, his eyes vacantly staring across the room, singing quietly to himself.

With the Doctor and Jack's combined efforts the hatch opened and the Doctor beckoned for Jack to drop down first, spotting that the shaft seemed to be a whole lot darker where they had come from than it had been ten seconds ago...

"Zagreus waits at the end of the world... For Zagreus is the end of the world..."

Jack hit the floor, and held up his arms to receive Rose. The Doctor quickly manoeuvred the unconscious woman to ease her down through the hole where Jack received her and moved out of the Doctor's way. The Time Lord glanced up at the end of the tunnel... and now he could see the Darkness quite clearly moving towards him, metres away...

"His time is the end of time... And his moment Time's undoing..."

He dropped down into the room, almost falling over sideways as he landed. Within seconds he ran to Don in the bed and rested his fingers on the metacrisis' temples, closing his eyes.

"Doctor?" Don whispered.

"Yeah, it's me," the Doctor replied.

"My head hurts."

"I know," the Doctor said gently. "I'm gonna fix you. I promise."

There was an ominous creak from the ventilation shaft above... and the walls themselves were beginning to groan. Within a matter of seconds the Darkness began to seep through the walls, as if the walls themselves were bleeding...

The Doctor quickly disconnected the metacrisis from the machines and pulled him onto his feet, coaxing the confused man to follow him. Together the three ran over to the door and much to their relief it was indeed open, and they dived through to meet a very surprised-looking security guard.

"You're...!" the guard began in alarm, but the Doctor was not in the mood for this.

"Look!" he yelled, pointing into the room... and the security guard froze on the spot.

"That's..." he began in a garble, but the Doctor simply began to run with Don, and Jack – still carrying Rose – hot on his heels. The security guard took one look at the Darkness, then at the running company, and decided very quickly to join them as the Darkness washed out of the room and began to chase them down the corridor...

They made it to a stairwell and they finally paused for air, constantly looking back over their shoulders to see if the Darkness was coming... but all there was was a perfectly lit and completely empty corridor.

"We keep heading downwards," the Doctor was saying, leaning against the wall with his hand on his chest, his brow furrowed in pain. "Get out of the building, get to Canary Wharf..."

The security guard suddenly looked up, his brow furrowed. "Canary Wharf?" he repeated in a question.

The Doctor nodded furiously. "My ship's there."

"... But that's been completely consumed by the Darkness," the guard said, a little apprehensively.

"What?"

"Most of London has... We're on the outskirts, but it's never moved this fast before..."

"It's gaining power," the Doctor said by way of explanation. "Before in Canary Wharf it was doing exactly what it's doing now, except it was so weak it was doing it very, very slowly and had a minor effect on me and Sarah..."

"But what about the TARDIS?" Jack asked anxiously.

"She's still alive," the Doctor assured him. "I would know if she'd died."

Suddenly there was a moaning sound from the floor... Rose was beginning to come around. The Doctor bolted over to her within seconds, cupping her cheek and gazing straight into her eyes. They flickered open, and a huge smile appeared on her face at the sight of him.

"Don!" she whispered and instantly reached up, grabbed him around the neck and planted a kiss on his lips. The Doctor quickly made a humming protest and held up his hands, trying to pull away, but Rose forced his lips to her's. After a moment she stopped... and then caught his expression.

"Wrong one," the Doctor informed her politely with an apologetic shrug.

Rose blushed as bright a colour as her name suggested. "Sorry," she muttered and made to sit up... and then caught sight of her husband currently standing next to the stairs staring at the far wall without even blinking. "What's wrong with him?"

"The shock ripped his brain back open," the Doctor informed her solemnly. "I need to get him to the TARDIS..." He paused for a moment, and glanced between Jack and Rose as he lowered his voice. "... And possibly perform brain surgery."

"Anything," Rose pleaded as Jack gazed at the Doctor silently. "Anything, just please save him."

The Doctor nodded. "I'll try."

He offered her a hand up, which she took and hauled herself onto two feet, grabbing him in a tight hug of gratitude and just plain relief. When they parted, for the first time she noticed Jack – and her gaze instantly dropped to his feet. He grinned and waggled all fleshy ten toes at her. She hugged him as well before moving over to get Don.

"Do you know where they took our possessions?" the Doctor asked the security guard. He nodded.

"Sixth floor, Doctor's Lounge," he replied, and readily produced a key. "Got the key."

* * *

They found the Doctor's Lounge with surprising ease, and the Darkness was taking its time trying to get through to them from the upper floor. Not that this made them any more complacent.

All the same, they took the opportunity to try and calm themselves down as they got dressed back into their proper clothes, and the Doctor was truly elated to have his sonic screwdriver back. He really didn't have the stature to kick down doors as swiftly as Jack did.

Hardly anyone spoke, the atmosphere tense between them like it had never been before. Even the guard, who had never met them before, could tell it wasn't normally this way. The situation was out of control, and didn't they know it.

By the time they were ready, the Darkness was beginning to seep through the cracks in the ceiling, dripping down from the corners of the room. With haste they quickly left the lounge and made a beeline to the stairwell, commencing the hunt for an exit...

Only to realise the Darkness had not started at the top of the building.

As they stood on the stairwell of the sixth floor looking down towards the fifth floor, all they could see was a mass of black goo flooding the stairwell, the stairs themselves lost to the Darkness' hunger...

It was coming down from the seventh floor, and coming up from the fifth floor. They were completely stranded...

No one dared to speak, just looking at the Doctor who was still staring down at the sight without any hint of emotion on his face. In truth, they were waiting for his killer plan. He always had one. Didn't he?

"Of course!" the Doctor suddenly yelled, spinning around to meet them with a finger in the air, a bright grin on his face. "I  _completely_ forgot!"

"What?" Jack asked.

The Doctor was far too overexcited to bother to reply with any kind of sense, so instead he was off in a shot, pushing past them back into the hall of the sixth floor. The others looked at each other for a moment, before they spontaneously burst into massive grins and ran after the Doctor. They followed him to the end room, where he was already busy sonicking the end window to make the glass crack.

"What is it?" Rose asked, hand-in-hand with Don.

"998, 998, 998!" the Doctor shouted happily, suddenly spinning around on the spot and pointing at each of them in turn. "Remember that number, very important number! 998! Don't forget it!"

He turned back to the window, and prodded the glass. It shattered outwards on his touch, leaving a hole as tall as the Doctor was open to the ground far, far below. The Doctor gave a happy giggle and threw his arms in the air, turning back to them.

"Doctor!" Jack yelled, unable to stop himself laughing. "What're you planning?"

"Right, so," the Doctor began, climbing up into the empty frame of the window, checking the edges. "This Darkness, it's from the void. It's basically unstoppable, we know it wants an eye, but it won't tell us what eye this is. And because it isn't telling us what this eye is, we can't help it. And it's going to look all over the universe for this eye, growing more and more powerful as it gets bigger and bigger... It's spreading over this Universe, consuming everything – matter, time, the lot. Soon the whole of history will be eaten, and the future too. It's going to destroy everything that ever existed or will exist in this universe... And then it'll spread out across the rest of the parallel universes and eat all of them too. Everything... and I mean literally e _verything,_ every universe, the whole of time, the entire cosmos and the whole of creationwill cease to exist..."

"I'm not seeing the happy factor, here," the guard suddenly piped up from the side, frowning slightly.

The Doctor suddenly stopped examining the window frame and looked at him. "What's your name?"

The guard blinked in surprise at being asked. "Nigel."

The Doctor beamed. "Nigel! I can always trust a Nigel. Nigel, 998. You got that?"

Nigel nodded, staring at the Doctor as though he were insane.

"Good," the Doctor said, and began checking the frame again. "As I was saying, taking over existence bla bla bla...  _but,_ the TARDIS has an emergency program..." He stopped again, and looked at them. "Actually, you'd better stand back. Right back. Back against the wall."

The others obliged, increasingly becoming more and more confused with every passing second. But that was a reassuring normality with the Doctor, so they went with it.

"Good, now don't move under any circumstance, okay?" the Doctor said, and they all nodded back at him – well all except Don, who was just gazing at his lookalike blankly. But the Doctor didn't seem to notice him as he continued his rant. "The emergency program is activated by that number, 998. The TARDIS is programmed to make one trip for each of the passengers to any time and any place in the Universe they want..." He stopped examining the window for the third time, but he was no longer smiling. "For the time when there's nowhere else you'd rather be when you know the end is coming."

Rose was frowning, letting go of Don's hand to step forward, but the Doctor quickly held up a hand.

"Don't move," he said seriously. Why did he look so sad? "Stay right there. Remember, 998." He paused, looking at them all for a moment. "See ya."

And he dropped backwards out the window.

"No!" Rose gasped as Jack and Nigel ran forwards to the window, throwing out their hands redundantly...

But it was too late. The Doctor was falling, arms and legs splayed, eyes closed, the wind rushing through his hair as he plummeted from the sixth floor window and headed the only way gravity knew... down, towards a messy death.


	15. Even More Problems

The falling sensation was almost liberating. The Doctor could hear his own mortality screaming at him as he fell closer and closer towards the pavement; he could feel the Darkness welcoming him to his death. And for a moment he considered taking it.

But this wasn't the time. Not yet, anyway. Feeling the wind rush through him he lifted the sonic screwdriver to the skies above and pressed the button. It burst into the familiar bright blue light... and instantly the Darkness turned to him. It began to peel off of the walls of the nearest buildings, shooting across the sky and straight towards his falling body as the unstoppable force it was...

He only had this chance.

He just waited.

The Darkness continued to rush across the sky like the tide coming in... although it was never going to go back out again. It was a race against time; against the whole of creation itself. He pressed the button on the sonic even harder, gripping it even tighter, squeezing his eyes shut as if his concentration could somehow do a damn thing about it. If this didn't work...

Then there it was, that familiar churning sound. His eyes shot open again and he realised the TARDIS console room interior was fading in and out in front of his eyes, materialising around him as he continued downwards in this seemingly never-ending fall. But there was no relief yet.

The Darkness was getting closer, and he would hedge his bets that a half-materialised TARDIS exterior was going to be like a piece of paper to the force. And it wanted him and his sonic waves so badly. It was gaining speed, determined to catch its pray...

The TARDIS fully materialised around him and he heard the massive crash of the Darkness slamming into the door, having been within seconds of consuming him. He dropped lightly to the console room grating and for a moment he just breathed, staring up at the ceiling taking in lungfuls of air. But he couldn't rest yet.

He scrambled to his feet, diving to the console and commencing programming. Suddenly the side door burst open and he looked up in surprise to find Sarah, Martha and Luke standing there staring at him in shock.

"Hello!" he said, blinking slightly. "What are you doing here?"

"What are  _we_ doing here?" Martha repeated in disbelief. "Where..."

"No time!" the Doctor interrupted quickly, turning his attentions back to the console. Just as he pressed a button the TARDIS began to wail out a crescendo of alerts, the lights flickering on and off around them...

The Doctor dived around to look at the monitor, his eyes widening. "Mauve alert!" he shouted. "It's got us! Hold onto something and close your eyes!"

Nobody even asked what the hell was going on, clearly knowing better by now. Just as everyone found a sturdy object to cling onto the entire room jolted erratically and there was a massive ripping sound from all around them, vibrating in their ears. The entire TARDIS did a flip as the occupants screamed in terror... and impossibly bright white light burst into life, burning through their closed eyes...

The cloister bell started up, but it was almost lost in amongst all the screams. It seemed like hours before the bright white light was suddenly gone and as Sarah wrenched open her eyes again to reveal the console room looking almost completely destroyed.

"What is it?" Martha yelled.

"It's broken the defences!" the Doctor shouted as he started hammering the buttons again. "The TARDIS is being ripped apart!"

"Land her, then!" Sarah screamed from the side, still holding desperately onto one of the support struts as the TARDIS continued to spiral out of control.

"No!" the Doctor screamed back as the central column began to move... but not with the usual groaning and churning... now she was screaming.

They landed with a crash that almost sent them all into their nearest respective hard surface. But even as the TARDIS began to fit violently the Doctor staggered over to the doors, pulling them open...

"Doctor?" Jack yelled in shock.

"Get in now!" the Doctor demanded, throwing out his hand as the TARDIS continued to churn... it was struggling to stay in reality, they only had seconds. Jack ran into the TARDIS, followed by Rose dragging the completely impassive Don and finally the guard Nigel. But Nigel had stopped dead inches from the TARDIS threshold, staring at the interior through the double blue doors of the 1960's police box in what could only be horror...

"Get in, Nigel!" the Doctor shouted desperately, but he was backing away, eyes wide...

And walked straight into the puddle of advancing Darkness.

"No!" the Doctor yelled, but he knew it was too late. There was nothing he could do. As Nigel's screams faded he slammed the doors shut and ran up to the console again, programming as fast as he could.

"Everyone HOLD ON!" he screamed over the commotion, but they hadn't really needed telling. The TARDIS flipped again and there was a massive crash and an alarmed yelp from where Rose was standing... the support strut she had been holding had fallen...

"Rose!" several people yelled as the Doctor continued to try and get the TARDIS under control, but his efforts were completely fruitless. Another strut fell, missing him by inches but just catching Martha, who screamed in pain...

There was a final jolt, and the TARDIS completed stopped, falling completely dark and silent. After a second the emergency lights came up and let them take in the utter destruction of the console room, and the painful whimpers of the injured.

The Doctor sprung into action instantly, moving over to the closest injured person, Martha, and lifting up the debris that was crushing her leg with the help of Sarah and Luke. He didn't even need to examine it to know it was broken.

"I've got you, it's okay," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and helping her to stand up as she continued to cry in pain. He ordered Luke and Sarah to fetch two stretchers as he helped her sit down on the chair before he quickly turned to Rose... but his breath instantly caught in his throat at the sight of her lying on the grating completely crushed by the fallen strut with her eyes closed, Don kneeling beside her with tears in his eyes.

"Rose?" Don asked quietly, cupping her cheek.

Jack was already trying to get the debris off of her by the time the Doctor had knelt down beside her, checking her vitals. There was blood all over her... And she wasn't breathing.

"Rose," Don whispered with tears rolling down his cheeks. "Please... Please wake up..."

The Doctor quickly began to help Jack, knowing they could do nothing to save her if she was still being crushed.

"Please..." Don continued, gasping through sobs. "Please Rose, please, I love you..."

The second the debris had been cleared the Doctor was doing CPR. Fifteen compressions... two breaths of air... fifteen compressions... two breaths of air... It felt like an eternity; the entire console room gripped in tense silence apart from Martha's whimpers of pain and Don's desperate sobs.

"Wake up!" Don screamed, slamming his fists into the grating, suddenly angry. "Wake up!"

The entire world was spinning around Don, the colours insanely bright and merging into shape of recognisable elements – demonic faces, laughing at him. Laughing at how pathetic he was. There was a voice in his head giving him the biggest headache he'd ever felt in his life, screaming at him how useless he had become, that he was just sitting here watching his wife die... He couldn't do anything right... He was nothing but a crazy person that nobody wanted around... He was a nuisance, he was pathetic, he didn't even  _deserve_  Rose...

Something suddenly grabbed his shoulders. He screamed and tried desperately to throw it off but it was holding him fast... Yelling in his ear, but it was drowned out by the voice in his head. Rose? Where was Rose? She'd always stopped the voices... Was she dead?

"ROSE!" he screamed, his lungs burning, his eyes blinded by tears. Someone was yelling at him to move away from her, but he couldn't leave her. But then... could he smell burnt toast?

An overwhelming dread washed over him. Instantly even through his warped mind state he knew he was going to have a fit. Not now! He wanted Rose, he  _needed_ Rose...

His entire body fell limp. Muffled voices were distant and echoed in his ears, and someone laid him down. Then he began to fit violently. He knew it was happening. And he wasn't going to take it quietly. He screamed throughout its entirety until a massive flare of agony burst through his head and the darkness of the world dragged him down into its cold, icy depths.


	16. Mad as a Haberdasher

The Doctor had been in the Infirmary all day, treating the injured as best as he could in the circumstances. The damage of the crash had been massive to both the passengers and the TARDIS herself – she was running on half-power, with all non-essentials shut off and all the energy reserves running directly to the Infirmary to try and keep the injured alive. At least they were across the Universe on a safe planet in a junk yard, temporarily away from the Darkness. Enough time to sort themselves out and figure out a plan, at any rate.

Martha was recovering well. But Rose, although she had started breathing again, was in a very critical condition. She had been the one to be taken into surgery first and they'd ended up having to deliver the dead baby while Rose was barely conscious. The baby was now covered in a blanket and put into a container should the parents wish to say goodbye.

In one bed away from Rose, Don was in a coma close to brain death, urgently needing surgery... once the TARDIS had enough power to sustain major brain surgery. Which might even take a while to sort out – the Doctor hadn't even had the chance to assess the extent of the damage to the TARDIS, yet.

As Jack entered the infirmary in the early hours he found the Doctor sat slumped in a chair next to Rose's bed facing away from him, completely still. "Doctor," he began but the Doctor made no indication of having heard him. Frowning, Jack stepped forward to tap his shoulder... but as his hand outstretched he realised the Time Lord was in fact sound asleep.

Despite everything, Jack couldn't help but smile at the sight of him. It had been a while since he'd seen the Doctor sleep without being sedated or bashed over the head beforehand. But he couldn't leave him like that, slumped in the chair. The Doctor's morning backache would never forgive him.

He leant down and picked up the sleeping Time Lord in both arms as carefully as he could, making sure not to wake him up. He took him out of the Infirmary door into the hallway, where he met Sarah coming the other way. She saw the Doctor in Jack's arms and frowned slightly, but Jack just gave a reassuring smile and a quiet shush as he continued down the hallway and into the Doctor's bedroom.

He set the Doctor down on the mattress, gently pulling off his unneeded clothes. Taking off the Time Lord's shirt revealed a blessing in the chaos – the apparent infection had pulled back even more. Maybe he  _was_  healing after all. But as he pulled out the Doctor's right arm from it's sleeve the Time Lord shifted slightly and opened his eyes in a slice, but surprisingly he didn't protest at the fact Jack was undressing him.

"Go back to sleep, you need it," Jack said gently.

"But Rose, Don..." the Doctor began.

"I'll wake you up if there's a problem," Jack assured him. "Now go to sleep. You'll be useless to them if you don't get some rest."

The Doctor nodded almost imperceptibly and closed his eyes again, obviously far too tired to argue. A few more minutes and Jack was done, pulling the duvet over his best friend, making sure he was comfortable.

"Jack?" the Doctor suddenly murmured.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Jack blinked. "What for?"

"Everything."

Jack frowned. "Doctor..."

But he was already asleep.

* * *

An exhausted Time Lord dropped down into the nearest available dining chair at midday the next day, having spent most of the morning checking the damage to the TARDIS. The humans amongst the group obediently fetched him some tea and sandwiches, waiting for his report as he made a grateful-sounding grunt and began to eat his first proper meal for what was probably days.

"The damage is huge," he told them after he'd swallowed a few large bites. "The power limiters have died, the heart's been wounded, several conduits have blown, pretty much all the refractors are bent or smashed and the damage report machine's exploded. Oh, and several of the buttons on the console don't glow anymore."

"What the hell we gonna do about it?" Jack asked, frowning.

"There's a reason I intentionally landed in a space junk yard," the Doctor reminded him. "I can probably salvage bits and pieces and repair her to at least half-capacity."

"But the TARDIS'll be okay?"

The Doctor nodded. "I'll need a couple of weeks to fix her, but she's already self-repairing. Or at least, trying to. The extrapolator's undamaged, so if we divert its power to the operating theatre we'll probably have enough to operate on Don sometime this evening. At least, I hope."

Jack, Sarah and Luke collectively gave him weak smiles at the mere thought of how bad the situation was right now with Don. Even to someone who knew little to none about medicine could've seen how majorly damaged the metacrisis' brain was from the scans.

"Is there anything we can do?" Sarah asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Sarah, I need you to be nurse. Keep an eye on Rose, Don and Martha. If the power fails, instantly divert the extrapolator to the Infirmary and keep everyone comfortable. And Luke, Jack, I'm gonna need you two to help me look for parts to fix the TARDIS. This might take a few weeks, but we'll get there."

All three nodded back at him.

* * *

"Rose," a voice came through the fog of unconsciousness. "Rose, can you hear me?"

Rose groaned as she came to consciousness, blinking her eyes open to find a familiar face leaning over her, smiling supportively. She forced a groggy smile back and made to reach up...

"Whoa!" he said, pulling back with his arms up. "Before you do that, I'm the Doctor." He laughed at her expression. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired. In pain," she replied in a murmur.

"I'll up your painkillers," the Doctor replied. "The osteo-regenerator is still fixing you, so no getting out of bed for two days and no strenuous activity for at least three weeks... And do you remember..." he suddenly trailed off, his eyes averting to her belly.

She followed his gaze... and gasped at her flat stomach. The baby was gone.

The Doctor quickly took her into a hug even before she started crying, comforting her as best he could.

"I know, it's stupid," she gasped through sobs into his chest after a few moments.

"No, it's not stupid," the Doctor insisted, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"But it was always dead," she whispered.

"That doesn't mean you should grieve any less."

She clung tighter to him. "I thought it'd get easier. It's the third. I thought I would be okay with it this time... but it just gets harder."

"Hey." The Doctor pushed her back from him at arm's length, looking straight into her eyes. "Look at me." Rose forced her teary eyes up, wiping them with the back of her hand. "Don't you _dare_  be okay with it. The bond parents have with their child is absolutely beautiful, it's eternal. If you become emotionless to it you'd be losing a part of your humanity. It's perfectly normal to feel like this – it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"But I can't keep doin' this," Rose sobbed. "I can't keep tryin' knowin' they'll probably die."

The Doctor sighed. "Do you want a baby?"

"Yeah..." she breathed, falling back onto him and holding him tightly.

The Doctor just swallowed, staring at the wall over her shoulder for a moment before snapping back to reality and moving on his thoughts. "I kept the body if you or Don want to say goodbye. Don't feel you have to."

She shook her head. "Just bury them when you can."

He nodded. "Do you have a name?"

"It was Eleanor if it was a girl and Matthew if it was a boy," Rose said, her voice shaking as she began to tear up again.

"How about Eleathew?" the Doctor suggested, gently.

Rose laughed a genuine laugh through the sobs. "Yeah."

"Eleathew Tyler," the Doctor mused, clicking his tongue as he looked at the ceiling. "You know, if you have a boy you should call him Tyler. Then he'd be called Tyler Tyler."

Rose laughed against his chest at his unstoppable optimism, but he was only just getting started.

"Or you could shorten it to Ty, so he's Ty Tyler. Hmm... that sounds like a boxer."

Rose laughed again, pulling back. "You're mad, you know that?"

"As a box of toads," the Doctor replied, beaming.

"Frogs, Doctor," she corrected him, giggling.

The Doctor looked shocked, quickly glancing around the infirmary. "Frogs? Where?"

Rose burst into laughter again. "You don't say toads, you say frogs."

"But all toads  _are_ frogs!" the Doctor insisted.

Rose rolled her eyes. "All right, mad as a hatter."

"Mad as a haberdasher!" the Doctor said gleefully with his finger raised.

Rose laughed again now completely clear of tears, reaching up to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

"I haven't even told you about Don, yet," the Doctor said, smiling.

Rose sat up, attentive. "What? What happened?"

The Doctor pulled a face, realising she didn't even know yet. "After you were injured he collapsed into a coma..."

"What?"

"Wait!" the Doctor interrupted. "We just did some repair work on the brain damage, he's in recovery at the moment. His brainwaves are fine. I think he's going to be okay."

"Okay as in..."

"Back to pretty much how he was before the accident four years ago," the Doctor said, smiling gently.

Rose's eyes widened, her jaw dropping as she stared at him, utterly speechless. Twenty seconds passed.

"Say something?" the Doctor urged, staring at her.

Her face exploded into the biggest smile he'd ever seen in his life. "Oh my God, thank you so much!" she yelled and grabbed him into a chokingly tight hug and a smacker of a kiss as she exploded into tears again – though this time of joy.

"You're welcome," he wheezed, struggling to breath through her hug.

"Thank you, thank you..."

"You're welcome, you're... welcome," he replied, still wincing. "Rose... you're crushing... my lungs."

"Oh sorry," she said, laughing as she drew back, looking him up and down with the massive smile still plastered on her face. "Oh God, you're probably exhausted. You didn't need to stick around."

"... I wanted to check you were okay first," the Doctor replied, slightly embarassed.

Rose kissed him again. "Go to bed."

"Yes, Mother," the Doctor replied insincerely as he got onto his feet. "No moving. If you need anything tell the TARDIS, okay?"

She nodded. "Good night."

"Nighty night," he replied and sketched a half-wave as he disappeared out the Infirmary door, flicking the light off as he passed.

He stopped outside the door for a moment, reaching up to touch his cheek where Rose had kissed him, staring at the wall. After a few seconds he blinked and shook himself through a shiver, limbering himself up for what was about to come. If he didn't do it now, he never would.

He went to bury Eleathew Tyler.

* * *

Typically, it was raining.

He had landed in the junkyard for TARDIS parts, but beyond the junkyard walls was a beautiful, practically uninhabited planet; quite similar to the Earth in many ways. He picked a spot next to some trees in bloom – their bright purple leaves shining in the multiple-moonlight.

It was so beautiful, he didn't even mind the cold rain.

He marked the spot with a circle, woven with some stray twigs he'd found and placed it on the grave of the dead child, wedging it into the dirt. Even though Eleathew had not strictly been his, he still felt like they were. He talked to Eleathew, sang for them, even grieved.

Even after he was done he just sat beside the tiny grave for a moment, the rain still falling. By the time he got back to the TARDIS he was absolutely soaked, trudging a load of wet footprints to the shower.

He grimaced as he fumbled with wet, cold fingers for the buttons of his soaked shirt, and after much difficulty he managed to pull it off and take his left arm out.

The black marks had started progressing across his body, making their way down his left arm again. His heart had since restarted... but he knew it wouldn't be long before it stopped once more.

This time it wasn't going to recede. He knew that. It was going to cover him from head to toe, killing everything in its path until his limbs were paralysed, his lungs were frozen and his hearts were dead. No regeneration.

He wasn't quite sure how he was going to tell the others. How was he supposed to tell them he was dying?

But he would sort out the Darkness first. He'd find this eye and seal the creature back into the void... Then he would be ready to die.

With a sigh, he threw the shirt onto the side and stepped into the shower.


	17. Redecorating

The TARDIS inhabitants had spent the past two weeks working together to try and get the TARDIS functioning.

Jack and Luke had been foraging the junkyard night and day to get the Doctor what he needed from a compiled list, and the Time Lord himself had been spending most of his time either in the Infirmary with his patients or under the console with a menagerie of tools.

Martha and Rose were back on their feet, offering to help in anyway they could but the Doctor had forbade it until they were fully healed, so they spent their time helping Sarah prepare refreshments and meals in the TARDIS kitchen for the others. The Doctor had commented a few times on the entire domestic concept of it whenever they all sat down at the kitchen table to dine together, but secretly he was enjoying it. This was probably the last time he would have the chance to do this.

Don had not yet woken up but he was in very good shape, according to the Doctor. He was just repairing the damage and getting used to the fixes the Doctor had done in surgery. Not to mention his hair was regrowing at an incredibly fast rate, covering the long incision on his head.

Things almost felt normal again. The issue with the progressing Darkness seemed a lifetime away as they all laughed and joked and shared each other's company every moment of every day, learning things about each other at every turn – anything from comical anecdotes to to childhood dreams to deep, dark secrets.

But today the Doctor was especially excited. As Luke brought in the last item on the Time Lord's list he was almost ready to burst with happiness, quickly diving down under the TARDIS console and fitting the last part with everyone watching him in high anticipation. After a few moments he stuck his head back out of the hole in the floor and grinned up at them all happily.

"We're ready!" he yelled, accepting Jack's hand up before he resumed bouncing around the console happily like an overexcited fangirl.

"Ready for what?" Sarah asked.

"I'm gonna completely rebuild her," the Doctor said excitedly, hammering a few buttons on the console. "Get rid of a couple of rooms that haven't been visited for a few eons, give her a new look and hopefully reduce her to err... what you would call factory settings. She'll be like new. I've bodged her so much in the past couple of regenerations I think it's time to start again. This is like a system restore."

"New look?" Rose wondered, gazing around the room. She, and most of the others, could never imagine the TARDIS looking anything other than like this.

"Yeah..." He suddenly stopped, staring at the half caved-in ceiling with his fingers tapping his chin in thought. "Maybe the leopard skin? Zebra's good..."

Before anyone had a chance to comment he whirled around to the crowd, eyes scanning until they rested on a suitable person. "Jack, can you go and keep an eye on Don while I do this? If this doesn't work the backups should kick in but I wanna make sure he's fine."

Jack nodded and wordlessly jogged out the side door to the Infirmary. The Doctor looked at the crowd, still grinning away merrily.

"You look terrified," he commented, folding his arms and grinning. "Don't be, just close your eyes when I say. You'll feel a slight jolt then when you open your eyes she'll look different, that's all. Okay?"

He got four, slightly uncertain nods back at him. He just continued to irradiate happiness and whirled back around to console pressing a few more buttons, staring at the monitor. "Okay," he said, "close your eyes."

They all obeyed and scrunched their eyes shut, a little terrified of what would happen next. There was a small jolt as the Doctor had said, and then he burst into happy laughter.

"Yes!" he enthused. "Open your eyes!"

They did so, and collectively their jaws hit the floor.

"Wow," was all Rose managed as the group of humans gazed in awe at their new surroundings.

The console was no longer circular, but rather hexagonal; the floor they were standing on no longer grating but glass instead. There were staircases everywhere, with a bright orange glow emanating from the walls now covered in large circles. Even the column in the middle had changed shape, getting wider as it went into a circular ridged ceiling.

"D'you like it?" the Doctor asked them all, his grin utterly infectious.

"It's... different," Martha said.

"But do you like it?"

"It's different."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, and ran forward about to give them all a hug, when he was suddenly interrupted...

"Doctor!" suddenly came a yell from the corridor – Jack. The Doctor was instantly alert as Jack burst in, seemingly completely oblivious to the new interior. But instead of the grim look they had all unconsciously expected he was smiling. "Don's waking up!"

* * *

"Stay back," the Doctor warned the others as they reached Don's bed, where he was stirring slowly to consciousness. "We don't want to crowd him. Keep it simple, I dunno if its worked, yet."

The others bar Jack, Rose and the Doctor retreated to the side, watching with hopeful eyes. Rose took Don's hand and held it tightly, tears in her eyes ready to fall should he be completely back to normal... Or even if he wasn't.

"Hello?" the Doctor asked gently, leaning over his metacrisis. "Can you hear me?"

Don's eyes flickered open, groggy and unfocused. Everyone held their breath in anticipation...

"Hello," the Doctor said gently, smiling.

Don didn't reply, merely looked around at the three with a sense of confusion... As if trying to remember who they were.

"Doctor?" Rose whispered, doubt instantly flooding her. No... He had to be okay, didn't he?

"Shush," the Doctor said gently, holding up a hand. "Give him some time." He looked back at Don. "You had brain surgery to repair the neural damage. Can you remember your name?"

Don stared at him for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly before he opened his mouth, his voice dry and cracked...

"Clarity."

The Doctor blinked. "What?"

"So much clarity..." Don whispered, still staring at the Doctor.

"Clarity of what?" the Doctor asked. But Don's eyes were flickering between the people around his bed, the Doctor, Rose, Jack... and then the gun in Jack's holster hanging out, ready to grasp...

Before anyone had any time to realise what was going on his arm shot out and he grabbed the gun, yanking it out and in one swift movement flicking off the safety and pointing it straight at the Doctor's head, his finger on the trigger...

"Don!" Rose squealed, not even sure what to do as the Doctor backed away, holding his arms in the air. "Jack, do something!"

But Jack knew if he tried to take the gun off of Don... he would fire and kill the Doctor in seconds. He stood completely paralysed, staring between the two lookalikes in absolute horror...

"Don..." the Doctor began, still with his arms in the air as everyone watched with their hearts in their throats. "What are you doing?"

Don didn't answer. He was staring at the Doctor with his finger on the trigger, looking to all the world as though he would shoot. His eyebrows were lowered, his eyes flooded with as of yet unfallen tears.

"I've got to..." Don whispered, shaking. "I have to..."

"You have to what?" the Doctor asked in a quiet voice.

"Shut up!" Don yelled, reaffirming his grip on the gun. The Doctor did so, closing his mouth and staring at Don, trying to analyse him.

Silent seconds passed as Don continued to stare at the Doctor, his teeth gritted. "I need to... Oh God." His eyes suddenly disconnected from the Doctor, but he kept the gun held high. "No... This isn't right... It's not you... It's me."

Then he suddenly lowered the gun from the Doctor and instead turned it against himself, holding it to his mouth. None of the crowd could suppress their gasps.

"Don," the Doctor whispered, staring at him. "What's you? Let me help you."

"It's my fault," Don told him. "It's all my fault. I have to die."

"What's your fault?"

"You!" he suddenly yelled, and the tears consequently exploded, pouring down his face. "I know! I worked it out!"

The Doctor suddenly seemed to pale. He didn't even bother looking at the others as he raised a hand and pointed at the exit. "All of you, leave now," he grated.

No one moved.

"Leave!" the Doctor demanded more forcefully, looking at everyone else in the room. No one dared argue with him. In seconds everyone else had obediently flooded out the door, leaving the Doctor and Don alone.

"You thought I was insane," Don said quickly, his crying stilting his breathing. "I wasn't. I was thinking. And I worked it out. I know, Doctor. I have to die. Everything is me. My fault."

"Give me the gun," the Doctor said firmly, holding out his hand.

"No!" Don yelled back, tightening his grip.

"Don't you  _dare_ pull that trigger. You can't be with Rose with a bullet in your head."

"Well maybe  _you_ want to be with her!" Don shouted back.

"Don," the Doctor began, staring coldly into his eyes. "You know me. You are me. You know how I feel about this."

"Well maybe you don't realise how everybody else feels about it! All of those people out there, and more, they love you, they need you to be there and I am  _not worth_ you! The half regeneration... you are going to die if I get better! My existence is sucking the life out of you and you know!"

"Don. I'm so old. I've seen so much. I've lost so many people and seen so many deaths...  _caused_ so many deaths... All I wanted was to be with Rose. I gave that to you. I wanted you to live that for me. But I'm ready to die and  _nothing_ puts my life over yours. Don't you even  _dare_ pull that trigger because if you do..."

"What?" Don demanded to know.

"... Rose's heart will break."

Don stared at him. "But she'll have you. You'll have her. I can't even have children with her, you can."

"She doesn't love me," the Doctor replied quietly. "She loves you, now. She's given everything to you, she loves you and I'm nothing to her anymore. Don't take that away from her. Please."

Don swallowed, falling completely silent. After a few moments he lowered the gun, and looked dejectedly at the covers of the bed.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered.

"How can I watch this happen?" Don asked, his voice breaking. "Watching your cells die, your organs shut down... and knowing it's all my fault?"

"I don't have all the answers," the Doctor replied gently. "But we can't both live, and you are barely into this existence. I'm ready to die."

"... And you won't even tell the others."

"I will. Eventually. I'm not sure how," he said, shrugging slightly.

There was complete silence for a few seconds as they both calmed down, reigning in their thoughts.

"I saw Gallifrey," Don suddenly said.

The Doctor double-taked, utterly wrong-footed. "What?"

"It was on the screen when we were being attacked in the void ship," Don replied. "It's inside the void. I think when Gallifrey was time locked it..."

"Left an echo of its existence in the void," the Doctor finished, veering into complete shock.

"And I know what eye it wants."

The Doctor couldn't believe his own logic. "You mean it wants the..."

"Eye of Harmony. Yeah."

There was a slight pause.

"So we have to go to Gallifrey," the Doctor muttered.

"Yep," Don nodded.

"Oh no," the Doctor croaked.


	18. Class of the 4th Millenia

_In the dimensionally transcendental Gallifreyan Citadel on floor 31 of 119 sat the Panoptican. Here Time Lords were abundant, busy men with busy lives in silly hats and silly collars – well, that's the way Theta saw them, anyway – roamed around hurriedly with barely a glance at the Time Academy pupils gathered by their history teacher, Cardinal Brabbajaggl._

_It was their first class trip, and judging by the way things were heading, probably the last one too. The Class of the 4th Millennia were a rowdy bunch, their vocabulary mainly consistent of stupid questions and ready-made insults towards each other. Cardinal Brabbajaggl was becoming increasingly more and more agitated as he desperately tried to get the young students to be even a little bit interested in the foundations for all of Gallifreyan society, pointing out a nearby black stone statue of Rassilon standing proud on the north-side of the room._

" _Can anyone tell me who this is?" Cardinal Brabbajaggl asked patiently to the milling students._

" _Rassilon!" one of the students, Drax enthused._

" _Correct," the Cardinal praised. "But he was only one of the six founders of Gallifrey that formed the different chapters. Can anyone tell me who the others were?" His gaze firmly rested on Theta standing next to Koschei and Magnus – the Trio of Horror, as most of the teachers had dubbed the group. "Theta, I have a feeling you may know one of them."_

" _Omega!" Theta enthused, beaming from ear-to-ear. "He was the greatest and best and most..."_

" _Thank you, Theta," Cardinal Brabbajaggl interrupted smoothly before Theta could say another word. "And who else?" His gaze turned to Ruath. "Ruath?"_

" _That other one," Ruath answered._

" _I don't know if you intended it in that manner, but yes, that is correct Ruath. The Other is the last third of the Triumvirate. Can we remember anyone else?"_

" _Why is the Other called the Other?" Koschei suddenly piped up from the side._

" _Because nobody knows his name," the Cardinal answered shortly. "Now can we remember..."_

" _But why?" Koschei carried on, completely oblivious. "If he was..."_

" _Magnus!" Cardinal Brabbajaggl practically yelled, looking at the boy in question and completely ignoring Koschei. "Another founder, please?"_

" _Umm..." Magnus began unsurely. "Errr... umm... err... errr..."_

_It seemed to continued for a very long time until his eyes suddenly widened and he jumped in the air. "Apeiron!"_

_The Cardinal frowned, looking at Koschei standing next to Magnus. "Were you telepathically giving him the answer?"_

" _No sir, never sir," Koschei replied with an innocent grin. Theta visibly suppressed a giggle from next to him. Brabbajaggl sighed, quickly realising he was never going to win this as he tried desperately to keep the class under his control. "Rallon! Please, please give me the name of one of our founders."_

" _... Pandak?" Rallon wondered in a small voice._

_A huge smile spread onto the Cardinal's face. "Well done, Rallon..."_

" _But why?" Koschei interrupted again from the side. "If the Other was so important then..."_

" _Be quiet, Koschei!" Brabbajaggl roared. "For Rassilon's sake! This is like trying to close the Eye with a finklegruber!"_

_Instantly the whole class fell silent and looked at him, jaws open._

" _He swore!" Magnus yelled, pointing at their teacher. "He swore!"_

" _I did nothing of the sort!" Brabbajaggl insisted, blushing slightly._

" _He swore!" Theta repeated, also sticking his finger out._

_Then all the students were ganging up on him, pointing and yelling in unison. The other Time Lords milling about the Panoptican were beginning to stop, staring at him..._

" _Oh Lord President Saran!" Brabbajaggl suddenly exclaimed, staring over the young Gallifreyan's heads to someone behind them. Instantly the entire class whirled around and stared up at Lord President Saran, all of them instantly riveted to the spot._

" _Why hello, Cardinal Brabbajaggl," Lord President Saran greeted, shaking the teacher's hand. "What have we here?"_

" _A class trip, my Lord," Brabbajaggl replied evenly. "We're having our first look around the Panoptican, aren't we, class?"_

_Eleven silent nods came back to the Lord President._

" _A fascinating place," Brabbajaggl continued._

" _I agree," the Lord President said with a nod, looking down at the class who were still staring at him without even having blinked. "Do you know what is under our feet right now?"_

_The class didn't even squeak._

" _Surely you must know," the Lord President encouraged with a smile._

" _... The Caldera?" Theta wondered._

" _Correct! And what is in the Caldera?"_

_Everyone was silent once more._

" _Do you know?" Saran asked Theta, looking straight down at the boy standing wibbling in his shoes._

" _No, my Lord, sorry my Lord," Theta replied, staring at the floor._

" _The Eye of Harmony," Saran said. "As the story says... Rassilon travelled into the black void with a great fleet, within the void, no light would shine, and nothing of that outer nature continue in being except that which existed within the Sash of Rassilon. Now Rassilon found the Eye of Harmony, which balances all things that they may neither flux, nor wither, nor change their state in any measure. And he caused the Eye to be brought to the world of Gallifrey, wherein he sealed this beneficence with the Great Key. Then the people rejoiced..." He looked again at Theta, as if silently judging him. "What is your assigned name?"_

" _Theta, my Lord," Theta replied quietly. "Theta Sigma of the House of Lungbarrow from the Prydonian Chapter."_

_Saran's gaze lingered on him for a moment longer, before finally nodding as if it confirmed something._

" _It is said that the Eye itself is so large that it needs its own fold in space to be contained," Saran continued, seemingly addressing the whole crowd of students but he seemed to be looking at Theta more than any of the others. "The Caldera is accessed by a system of Vaults beneath the capitol, but physical access the the Power Mast can only be attained with the ebonite rod; the Rod of Rasslion... or sometimes known as the Great Key."_

" _It would be foolish, neigh impossible to try and enter the Caldera," Brabbajaggl continued with a knowledgeable smile. "The security codes change every micro span, isn't that right Lord President?"_

_Saran nodded. "Foolish indeed, but not impossible," he said, staring at Theta. "Any lesser species to the Time Lords would be killed upon entering the Caldera." Saran suddenly paused, his voice dropping slightly as he leant towards the boy. "I think you should remember this, Theta."_

_Theta nodded. "But where is the Great Key?" he wondered._

_Saran smiled slightly. "Many believe that the Great Key has been lost," he said to the group. "That maybe its existence is nothing but a fabrication."_

" _Then how is it possible to enter it?" Theta asked, confused._

" _I believe all future questions should be directed to the Chancellor, Theta," Saran seemingly evaded the question, and suddenly straightened up. "Please, explore the Panoptican fully with your students, Cardinal Brabbajaggl. If you'll excuse me."_

_Brabbajaggl bowed as the Lord President turned and moved off. Their teacher seemed quite a lot happier than he had before, with his students gripped in complete silence._

" _We will continue then, shall we?" he said with a smile, turning in a flourish of his robe and starting off through the Panoptican again, his students in silent tow._

* * *

Even when the Doctor finished explaining the situation, his group of companions seemed to still be confused.

"The short of it," the Doctor said, "I have to go to Gallifrey. It's echoed in the void, but I don't even know what's there. If I can even go on it. But the Darkness... it wants  _the_ eye. The Eye of Harmony. I have to go and look. It's my only chance."

There was a momentary pause as his companions considered this.

"We'll support you anyway we can," Sarah said.

"You can't come," he said instantly, his eyes snapping up to meet her's. "None of you. I don't know what time Gallifrey is echoed in. It could be eons ago in the Dark Times, it could be during the Time of Legend... it could be the War. The Eye might not even be there. Either way, a whiff of a human and they will target you all. Especially if we're in the Panoptican."

"You can't do this on your own."

"I have to."

"We won't let you," Rose responded simply.

"I'm not giving you a choice."

"Doctor!" Sarah suddenly yelled. The Doctor blinked in surprise as Sarah took his hand and held it tightly. "The entire Universe is at risk... And it's not that I don't trust you but..." She paused, staring down at where she was holding his hand so tightly. "You can't feel my hand holding yours, can you?"

The Doctor looked at her, then his hand, then at the group gathered around the table staring at him in horror.

He couldn't lie.

"No," he said quietly. Martha was on her feet instantly, already moving to check him over... "Martha," he said quickly, holding up his functional hand. "Please, let it go."

He wasn't asking. He was pleading.

"You've been lying," Martha realised.

He nodded.

"You said the Pinizopan would help..."

"Placebo," the Doctor replied quietly.

Tears were welling in her eyes. "Why?" she demanded to know. " _Why_  would you lie?"

The Doctor looked at her, swallowing. "Because there's no hope."

Everyone stared at him in horror.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor muttered. "The half-regeneration... It's backfired. I'm rotting."

"No," Sarah whispered. "But.. regeneration?"

"I can't regenerate while this is happening, I'm really sorry," he said again, aware of his companions struggling not to cry. "I really am... But this isn't going to stop."

"There has to be somethin'," Rose whispered.

He looked at her, then pictured Don still recovering in the Infirmary. Yes, there was. Not that they ever needed to know.

"There's nothing," he said after a moment.

No one could speak. Not knowing what to say. How to say it. This wasn't right...

"... How will it happen?" Martha finally asked.

He grimaced. "I'll have another heart attack soon, my left heart will die along with one of my lungs. It will start travelling down to my legs, paralysing my left leg, then my right. Around that time it will start progressing up my face, and start paralysing my mouth until I can't speak or form facial expressions. Then once the entire bottom half of my body is dead, it will take my right arm, then start back across my chest. When my second lung dies I will still be alive for a few moments before it kills my right heart."

"... How long?" Jack asked in a croak.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "Maybe a week?"

"Well that settles it," Jack said instantly, somehow effortlessly taking command. "We're coming with you to Gallifrey. Can't have you dying on the job."

Everyone looked at him, utterly aghast and appalled at his attitude, but he seemed blasé. The Doctor saw right through him, however.

"Jack, the Time Lords won't have a cure."

"You think we're just gonna sit here and let it happen? They have to have  _something,_ right?" Jack almost yelled, tears suddenly pouring down his face. The Doctor hadn't seen him properly cry before. Everyone was crying now.

He wished they'd stop.

"Please don't come with me," he begged. "You could die and I'd have no control."

"If you don't manage to get the Eye what's the difference?" Rose challenged through sobs. "We're comin'."

He paused, before he looked at them all, considering every single one of the companions he loved so much. For all their beauty, for all their flaws, for all the reasons he had taken them on. "Thank you," he said.

Martha moved into hug him, just as he had his heart attack.


	19. Welcome Home

The Doctor had had to be revived on the kitchen floor before being carried to the infirmary where he was stabilised. There, Martha examined him as thoroughly as she could to try and fathom the true gravity of the situation – somehow not completely convinced that the Doctor was telling them the absolute truth.

And she thought right. With the Doctor still unconscious she quietly told the others that the week he had given himself was quite generous at the rate it was spreading. In reality, he probably only had a couple of days until he became too ill to do anything for himself. Collectively the companions decided a mere ten minutes after Martha had finished her examination that they were going to take the situation into their own hands for the moment to get things happening as fast as possible.

Still with her broken leg in a cast, Martha elected to stay in the infirmary to keep an eye on the unconscious Doctor whilst the others took Don out into the junkyard for his help to try and find anything that could prepare the TARDIS for a journey through the void.

It quickly became evident that Don was reverting back to a stable personality as he took charge of the situation much in the way the Doctor would, ordering the others to find certain parts which they could bodge together to survive a passage to and from the void. Even before the Doctor had woken up, they had managed to get all of the necessary parts, which, when the Doctor entered the console room eight hours later, Don and Jack were already fixing to the TARDIS.

They didn't need to exchange words. The Doctor simply picked up a hammer from the side and silently joined in the modifications. No one even spoke a word of protest. It was nothing but wasted breath.

By evening, the modifications were finished. After checking it was completely functional the Doctor himself had suggested that they have a good night's sleep before they journeyed into the void – tomorrow would be a very long day.

As the others filtered away into their rooms, Don and Rose finally went to visit the grave of their dead child. They mourned; crying and holding each other for not only Eleathew, but also for their two previous dead children, Elisabeth and Nicholas... and also the child they were destined probably never to conceive.

That night Don slept with Rose for the first time in what felt like months. It had been so long, too long since they'd shared their love in a true way... their lives had been so hampered and distorted for five years by constant loss and troubles that it had hindered their ability to express themselves to each other in a physical language. But tonight nothing mattered.

Even when they were done they just held each other in the silence of the night, staring at the ceiling until Rose broke the silence, with nothing but a whisper.

"Will there be a cure for the Doctor on Gallifrey d'you think?"

Don swallowed, closing his eyes, struggling not to cry from the insane guilt he was feeling. "... I don't know," he managed to reply in a whisper.

"God, I hope so," Rose muttered back, reaching up to give him a quick kiss. "He means too much... to everyone."

Don just turned his head away, silent tears coursing down his cheeks, unnoticed.

* * *

In the room next to that, Jack was pacing up and down, still fully clothed.

He had to think of something to save the Doctor. He had to find something from Gallifrey. They would have something, yes? The Doctor had said they wouldn't, but all he'd been doing for the past few months was lying through his teeth so in all likelihood he was lying about this too...

But why wouldn't he want them to find him a cure? Did he want to die? Had he had enough?

Jack stopped pacing, and mentally slapped himself for the thought. The Doctor wouldn't do that. If he was lying, he had a reason, and probably a good one too. But if he wasn't going to tell Jack what that was, then Jack would force the cure down his throat until he gave him a bonafide reason. Even then he'd probably still hold the Doctor down until he took the cure.

Because he loved him too much. That tall, skinny, beautiful brown-eyed man had touched his heart in so many ways like he had so many others... and Jack simply was not going to let him die without a fight.

He continued to pace up and down, trying to think of a solution.

* * *

In the room opposite, Martha had achieved the extremely awkward task of trying to pee on a small white stick with a casted leg, and now she was sat on the toilet seat staring at the stick, just waiting.

She didn't know why she had left it so long... Or why she was even doing this test. She had had all of the warning signs, and for a very long time. No one had noticed yet, but soon she wouldn't be able to hide it. She already knew it was true... but this couldn't happen now. This had to be the worst timing in the world.

Then the indicator changed. Pregnant. Very, very,  _very_  pregnant. Three months, to be precise. With a sigh, she threw the indicator into the bin along with its utterly useless and quite obvious information. It wasn't that she was unhappy... but Don and Rose didn't need this right now. She had seen the dead baby Rose had delivered, and knowing that she had conceived what would probably be a healthy baby with Rose's ex-boyfriend was probably a little too much for her friend to handle.

How long before they noticed?

She got up, hobbled over to the door, and went to bed.

* * *

A few doors down from Martha, Sarah was back in her old room.

She had been stuck in the TARDIS for three months with Luke and Martha before the Doctor had suddenly appeared again, but it wasn't until the Doctor had pointed out that it existed did she realise it was actually still here.

All her old things that she hadn't packed when she'd left before were exactly where she'd left them. The Doctor had obviously been in to make the bed and straighten things out, but asides from that it was completely the same. The hairbrush she'd left on the table was in exactly the same place she'd left it so many years previously. The teddy she'd lost down behind the bed, salvaged by the Doctor and placed on her pillow. The alarm clock she had insisted on keeping on her bedside table, even though the Doctor had always teased her about it.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

Not that she would for one moment trade back. She had an amazing life at the moment, she had Luke, Clyde, Rani, Mr Smith, K9... saving the world from a little attic in Ealing, as the Doctor had put it.

The Doctor.

She couldn't help but let go a sob.

She knew that Jack had been on a mission all day to try and think of a solution. Maybe he'd got somewhere? She'd have to ask him tomorrow.

Silently she turned over under the duvet cuddling the teddy she'd found, feeling 23 again.

* * *

Luke had borrowed Martha's notes on the Doctor, and was now intently studying them in the light of a bedside lamp.

No one else knew, but Martha had been keeping tabs on the Doctor ever since he walked into Torchwood... She had been noting down his every movement – what he ate, when he ate, when he slept, how long for, changes in blood pressure, changes in heart rate... Even any changes in his mood. Every detail about him was kept as a record in this file.

So now he was sat there trying to draw a correlation of some sort, reasoning that if the Doctor wasn't going to save himself then he would have to use every bit of intelligence he had to find a way. Any way.

But he had found nothing so far.

He barely knew the Doctor in all honesty as they hadn't really spent any time together that wasn't working on the TARDIS or saving the world, but he knew how much the Time Lord meant to his Mum. Quite often when he was younger she would reminisce of her times with the Doctor, and Luke would be interested to listen. In many ways the Doctor had inadvertently become his "father figure" - even though Luke didn't really know exactly what a father  _was_ , but that was what they called it on the TV. He looked up to the Doctor a lot, and even in illness he had not let him down in any way.

So he would try his hardest to help the Doctor, and if he couldn't then he would help his mum.

* * *

In the next room the Doctor was standing in front of the mirror in only his boxers, gazing at his reflection. Even in the darkness of the night he could still see the black marks that adorned his pale skin, and they were beginning to spread down his side past his ribs towards his left leg. He dared to run his finger over one of the lines on his numb left shoulder. No pain reflex now. That part of his body was completely gone, and the lines of black felt as hard as stone.

Martha had probably worked it out when he had been unconscious. She had probably told the others. Strangely, it didn't even matter. All that mattered was getting the Eye... and making sure none of his friends died in the process.

He just wished Don didn't have to go through this.

He sighed, dropping down onto the bed and staring at the floor. Gallifrey, tomorrow. He didn't know how he'd react... how it would even look. He didn't think he could stand it if it was the Time War all over again. He wouldn't be able to stop himself from doing something foolish.

With another sigh, he turned on the bed and slipped down under the covers, closing his eyes.

* * *

The next morning after breakfast the Doctor yanked down the lever on the TARDIS console, and the dematerialisation column sprang into life.

Everyone was gathered around helping to pilot, quite excited to think that today they were going to Gallifrey. Actual Gallifrey. The planet of the Time Lords. The only people perhaps not so enthused were Don and the Doctor, who kept exchanging worried glances as the TARDIS flew onwards. They both knew the dangers in ways that the others couldn't possibly know, even with Don's erased memories he knew that taking all these humans to Gallifrey, whatever time period it was in, was a very dangerous mission indeed.

But there was just no way of stopping them. And quite right, too. Soon the Doctor would not be able to walk and if he still didn't have the Eye by then, the mission was over... along with the entire cosmos.

Things went smoothly until suddenly the TARDIS jolted, prompting everyone to grab onto something, worried for a repeated incident. But the Doctor simply pulled the monitor to face him, and pulled a half smile.

"We're in the void," he said. "Right, keep it steady and silent, maybe it won't notice us..."

No one dared to speak. The lights all around them had dimmed, directing all power to the modifications they had made to survive the journey. The Doctor was shuffling around the console checking everyone's positions on the controls, trying to act blasé when inside he was trembling slightly.

He was scared. And he knew if  _he_ was scared... There was absolutely no gauge for how the others were doing in that respect. He could see them silently withering, some with their eyes closed, but all of them rooted to the spot holding their specific control, almost having stopped breathing.

There was a massive crash from the side and they were all thrown to the side with a collective scream of horror.

The Doctor bounced forward instantly, taking control. "Now! Go, go! Jack, full power! Martha, left hand up! Rose, red button!" He paused to stare at the monitor, as the others quickly did what they were told, their hearts in their throats... "Luke, hand up, now!"

The TARDIS swerved, seemingly dodging something that they couldn't see. The TARDIS continued to rush through the void until the Doctor suddenly gasped...

"Gallifrey," he breathed, seeing it on the monitor sat in a mass of absolute nothingness. "We're gonna land! Jack, dial at two o'clock, Rose, pull that lever up!"

The TARDIS was shaking uncontrollably, all the alerts in a full crescendo, now. Everyone was struggling to stay upright but resolutely did their job... until another huge jolt shook the entire room and sent everyone to the floor.

Then everything fell silent, and the lights came up. The Doctor pulled himself up and gazed at the monitor...

"Oh Rassilon," he breathed.

"What?" Jack asked first, pushing himself up from the floor.

The Doctor could barely speak. "We're here."

Instantly everyone was alert, rushing as fast as they could towards the TARDIS door before Rose suddenly stopped from where she was at the front, almost making everyone run into her.

"Wait," she suddenly said. "Is it okay to go out?"

The Doctor looked at her, smiling as he checked the monitor. "Yeah."

Then there was no stopping them. They flooded out of the door and onto the planet surface before the Doctor straightened up, rolling back his shoulders as he shared a glance with Don, and they both made their way to the door, stepping out.

Everyone was in the grips of delight, chatting happily together and pointing out across the scenery. The Doctor couldn't hear them, feeling slightly numb as he stepped forward and just simply stared.

It was evening, the field stretched in front of him filled with beautiful plains of deep red grass growing wild around his feet, with the snow-capped Mount Lung not far away through a throng of silver-leaved trees, lit up like a forest on fire. The burnt orange sky bathed him in a familiar warm glow, but even looking at that drew his attention to the Citadel in the distance in a large dome, dwarfed by Mount Caldon as it always had been.

He could hear the familiar squawks and squeaks of the Gallifreyan animals, and he looked down at his feet just in time to see a Rovie mouse run by his foot to the left, where he followed it with his eyes to see a vex burrowing into the dirt in the distance. He caught a glimpse of gold and he found a Beatitude fly with its familiar golden wings whizzing around in front of him for a moment before quickly zooming off into the distance.

Suddenly he felt a heavy hand clamp down on his working shoulder, and he looked to the right to see Jack grinning away happily.

"We get the right planet?" Jack asked jokingly.

The Doctor looked at him briefly, but his eyes were as wide as dinner plates when he looked back across the scenery, shrouded in his own memories. "Yeah," he replied simply, gazing at the world he chose to remember so fondly. And even in remembering, he had completely forgotten how beautiful it really was.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, sensing that being an echoed copy in a place of non-existence, there was something slightly wrong with this place. But it didn't even matter.

He was home.


	20. Fractured

They walked what felt like for miles, but it didn't seem to matter. Their surroundings were so beautiful it was less exhausting and more inspirational. As the humans enthusiastically talked amongst themselves pointing out all the alien things around them, the Doctor and Don were completely silent, just absorbing the planet of which they shared memories. They would never see this planet again after this, so it made sense to make the most of it.

They were starting to get closer to the Citadel now, making out details of the buildings and the hum of activity that seemed to surround it. The Doctor couldn't wipe the grin off of his face. He was going back into the Citadel... After all these years...

"Doctor," Don suddenly said. The Doctor turned to see him stooping down next to a fallen tree, pulling back at the red grass. The others also stopped as the Doctor moved back to join Don to see what he was looking at.

It was old and worn, but two Gallifreyan words could quite clearly be made out carved side-by side exactly how the Doctor remembered.

**THETA KOSCHEI**

He looked at Don, and together they smiled.

"What is that?" Sarah suddenly asked, looking down at the writing.

The Doctor looked up at her and the crowd of humans, considering where they were standing and how happy he was... and for the first time since the War he decided there was absolutely nothing to hide. "When I was at the Prydon Academy me and my best friend used to skip classes and run out in the fields here," he told them. "We carved our names into this tree."

Sarah smiled back and knelt down, pointing at the markings that were strange to her on the left hand side. "Who's that?"

"That's me," he said, and then pointed to the one on the right. "And that's Koschei."

Don looked at the enquiring faces of the crowd of humans, half-smiling. "You'd know him better as the Master," he clarified.

If they were shocked, they decided not to show it, for which the Doctor and Don found themselves slightly grateful for. However revealing the Doctor felt, some things were just too painful to recount. For a moment they all gazed at the markings.

"Yours is neater than his," Rose said suddenly in the silence, and the Doctor and Don laughed in a shared inside joke. Rose looked confused. "What?"

The Doctor got up on his feet, unable to wipe the smile off of his face. "Nothing, let's go," he said, and pushed through the crowd back in the direction of the citadel. But as he took another step he suddenly felt a popping sound in his ears, and his entire body seemed to shudder...

"Whoa!" Jack exclaimed, evidently having felt the same, as had everyone else. They all looked around in confusion, before their gazes rested on the Doctor.

The Doctor looked up, and found that instead of the fields of beautiful red grass in front of him it was nothing more than barren wastelands with the destroyed citadel in the distance...

Stunned, he stumbled backwards and the popping sound came in his ears again as he realised that he was back in the beautiful lands he was before, the others gone from in front of him.

He stepped forward again. His ears popped, and he definitely had not been imagining things.

But how was that possible?

"Doctor?" Jack asked.

The Doctor looked at him. "I think time here is fractured," he said quietly. "We're stepping through from one period of time to the other through a kind of invisible wall." He considered their confused faces, and attempted to clarify. "Sort of... imagine hitting a car windscreen with a hammer. But it's not completely broken, it's just cracked in sections from the centre. So we're sort of stepping from one broken bit to the next. The place we were just in was Gallifrey before the Time War, and this..." he gestured redundantly at the wastelands. "This is Gallifrey... after I..." he trailed off, swallowing before continuing. "If this is the time fracture the Citadel is in... the Eye won't be there."

Rose could sense the trepidation in his voice. "We won't know until we look, yeah?"

His eyes flickered to her for a brief moment, before nodding. "Yeah," he aimed to say in a strong, affirming voice... but it only came out as a croak.

"I think I should stay here," Martha suddenly said, gazing at the harsh terrain stretching for miles between them and the Citadel, and in turn gazing at her leg, still not fully healed.

The Doctor looked at her in consideration, then nodded. "Stay just on the other side of the time fracture next to the tree so we know where you are."

"I'll stay with her," Don suddenly said, moving to stand next to Martha. He caught the others' expressions. "She needs another person medically trained, and..." He paused, gazing around at the barren wastelands surrounding them. "... I'd rather stay here."

The Doctor nodded, understanding, and then looked at Luke. "Sorry, Luke, but you should probably stay here as well."

"But..." Luke began in protest.

"I'm sorry, but in the Citadel you'll stick out like a sore thumb. If it's in a populated time fracture we'll need as few humans as possible, and your youth will draw attention."

Luke looked crestfallen, but eventually nodded without protest and moved to joined Martha and Don.

"Good luck," Martha said with a smile.

The Doctor nodded in reply, forcing a half-smile as the three disappeared back through the time fracture. He turned back to the diminished group of Rose, Sarah and Jack, taking a deep breath.

Rose took his functioning hand, squeezing it gently as she pulled him further into the wasteland. He seemed tense and distant, eyes constantly flickering around at the destruction. All of them began to walk across the landscape in silence, but suddenly the Doctor stopped and yanked his hand from Rose's, stumbling back.

"I can't," he croaked. "I can't do this, I just can't..."

He turned as if making back through the time fracture when Rose suddenly grabbed his hand again, pulling him around to face the group.

"It'll be okay," she assured him.

"No, no it won't..." he whispered, on the verge of tears. "You don't understand, they're all dead, I killed them all..." He pulled away again, but Rose held his hand firmly. "Let go of me!" the Doctor yelled trying to pull away, before his voice dropped to barely a whisper... "Please, please let me go..."

"No," Rose said sternly, staring into his eyes. "We're trying to save the Universe here, remember? And if you won't come we don't stand a chance. Close your eyes if you have to, but I'm gonna drag you there, okay?"

The Doctor stared at her, then at Sarah and Jack in turn. "Yeah," he finally croaked with a nod, swallowing nervously. "I know, I'm sorry."

All three watched him as he looked down at his shoes; a completely lost little boy.

"D'you wanna sit down for a bit?" Rose asked.

He nodded and sagged to the ground like a sack of potatoes with limbs. The other three followed, sitting cross-legged in a circle around him, unsure of what to do. It seemed so odd.

"I'm sorry," he said again, but his voice was barely a whisper.

"It's okay," Sarah assured him. "This must be difficult for you."

He just stared at the ground for a moment, running a hand down his face. Maybe he needed this... to come to terms with it. He had never got the chance to do this before and now he did... and it was probably the next stage of the grieving process that he'd been stuck in for so long.

He flopped down onto his back and rolled onto his side, staring out across the destroyed landscape. He knew he was about to cry, and the moment he thought about crying, he did. He began to sob unashamedly, his entire body convulsing, his wet tears running rivulets down the side of his face and wetting the dry, barren ground. His entire chest was aching with the pain of the memory... and the guilt.

He was glad when the others didn't say anything; merely showed they were there for him by holding his hand and making sure he wasn't inadvertently crushing his paralysed arm. Rose moved in and held his head, cushioning it from the ground and pressing a kiss to his temple.

It was about twenty minutes before he summed up the mental power to continue. With a sniff and a wipe of his eyes he sat up and offered a watery smile at them all, feeling a lot better inside for having cried. They all grinned back, hugging him and kissing him as Jack helped him to his feet.

"Thank you," he said to them seriously.

The three nodded back, smiling as reassuringly as they could.

"Oh, I hope the Citadel is in a good time fracture," he mused, his old demeanour returning. It was refreshing. "I want to get you all a Promarzzi bar!"

Rose laughed. "What's that?"

"Only the best food in the Universe!" the Doctor enthused, beaming from ear-to-ear. "They're great! You'll love them!"

But as they started off, all three humans simultaneously realised he was limping slightly. They glanced at each other before Jack moved forward and took his arm.

"Doctor, you're limping."

The Doctor pulled his arm out of Jack's hands and started walking again. "It's fine," he fobbed off.

Jack, Sarah and Rose shared another glance. It was starting to go down his left leg, as he had said. Soon it would be completely paralysed, just like his arm.

There had to be a cure in the Citadel. There just  _had_ to be.

With a slightly renewed hope the three began to follow the Time Lord.

* * *

They had passed through several time fractures on the long walk to the Capitol, and by the time they got near it was a complete hum of activity. Rose, Sarah and Jack were gazing at their surroundings in complete awe, staring at all the Time Lords bustling around obviously far too engrossed in their own lives to bother noticing anyone else. It was really quite surprising how different they all were to the Doctor in body movement alone.

"Keep your heads low," the Doctor warned them as they took a pause in a deserted area in the Capitol just outside of the Citadel itself. "Don't talk to anyone, don't even look at them, or they'll sense you're not Gallifreyan... Then we'll be in a mess."

"Where are we going first?" Sarah asked.

"You need some disguises first, because right now people will notice you. I'll go and find you some things, but you have to stay here." He stared at them all seriously. "Don't move. If anyone passes by, hide. If you're seen, run to a time fracture and hopefully they can't follow. If you're caught..." he paused, frowning. "Well... Just don't get caught."

They nodded nervously. "What if you don't come back?" Sarah asked nervously.

"If I'm not back in thirty minutes..." He paused and frowned again as he considered. "... Wait longer."

And with that, he disappeared.


	21. Trouble on Gallifrey

They waited for an hour before Jack lost his patience. Yes, they had mainly come here to get the Eye, but also he had come here to get a cure for the Doctor. But if they couldn't talk to anyone without being recognised as humans, then how were they going to find it?

He voiced his concerns to Rose and Sarah, but was only met by shrugs.

"Maybe if one of us goes we won't get noticed. Or if we are, we could just run..." Jack mused aloud, pacing up and down in front of them. After a moment her stopped, and looked at them. "D'you think it's worth trying?" he asked.

"The Doctor told us to stay here," Rose said quietly.

"I don't  _care_ what he says!" Jack suddenly yelled, bristling with spontaneous anger. Rose and Sarah stared at him, shocked, but understanding every modicum of emotion currently coursing through him. "Sorry," he said quickly. "I just..."

"We know," Sarah said gently.

They all fell silent again. Jack resumed pacing.

"Jack!" someone suddenly yelled from down the deserted alley. All three jumped to attention... they recognised that voice...

"What the..." Jack began, rising to his feet just as the person seemed to appear out of nowhere and run, arms flailing, down the alley.

"Jack! Come back!" it was Rose. But Rose was sitting right next to Sarah... There were two of them? "JACK!"

Then she was gone.

Jack's eyes widened as he watched the running Rose disappear around the corner. He took one glance at Sarah and Rose sitting on the floor, and then began to run after the other Rose.

"Jack!" Rose yelled, on her feet within an instant as she began to run after him, her arms waving in full-blown panic mode. "Jack! Come back!" she screamed, and disappeared around the corner after him.

Sarah had no choice but to follow, already knowing this was going to end in disaster.

* * *

Jack ran after the phantom Rose, currently pushing her way rudely through the crowd of Gallifreyans, who were staring in horror as they quickly realised this woman was not Gallifreyan.

"Jack! It's not safe! Come back!" she was screaming, but it seemed to drown out under the alarmed yells of the Gallifreyans.

"Someone call the Chancellery Guard!" someone screamed, and suddenly Rose stopped dead in her tracks, as if she'd just run into something. He stumbled to avoid her, just about dodging before he too stopped dead in his tracks in front of a tall man dressed in an outfit that seemed to be a mix between Captain Scarlet and Gazoo from the Flintstones.

"Human?" he gasped in a deep, authoritative voice, staring at Jack with narrow, unforgiving eyes. "No... are you? What in the name of Rassilon are you? You're wrong!"

Jack opened his mouth, but was cut off as suddenly Rose's screaming was coming from somewhere behind him.

"Jack!" she yelled. "It's not safe! Come back!"

He spun around to find the woman crash almost headlong into him, managing to catch her at the last moment to stop her in her tracks. Next Sarah arrived, slowing to a halt and panting for air.

"Present yourself, aliens!" the booming voice yelled again, and the three turned to find the man in the strange outfit seem to have quite quickly multiplied into several men in the same strange outfit, aiming what seemed to be weapons at their heads. Jack, Rose and Sarah quickly put their hands in the air, very nervous indeed. "Identify your planet of origin and the method used to get to Gallifrey!"

"Um, well," Jack began, putting on his most charismatic smile. "Funny you should ask that, because..."

"Sir," one of the men urged the most important-looking one in a low tone of voice. "Perhaps we should move this commotion inside the tower..."

The important one considered this for a moment, then the crowd slowly gathering, and then nodded. "Take them inside for interrogation."

The three didn't even have time to  _think_  how much the Doctor would kill them before they were all simultaneously shot in the chest, and the world went black.

* * *

Don and Martha were lying back on the deep red grass, staring at the star-filled sky above them, just absorbing their surroundings in a totally serene environment. Luke had wandered off, though Don had made sure he wouldn't go too far. Gallifrey was dangerous enough, and even more dangerous fractured.

"Martha," Don suddenly began through the silence that had gripped them for a while.

"Yes?"

"... Do you know about the condition Twin to Twin Transfusion syndrome?"

"In pregnancy?" Martha asked.

"Yeah."

She thought for a moment. "I haven't had to apply it for ages, but I think it's where there's an imbalance and one of the twins in the uterus gets more nutrients through their twin. Why?"

He swallowed. "What if I said that something a little bit like that could exist outside of the womb?"

Martha looked at Don, and laughed. "Then I'd say you're mad."

He didn't look at her. "What if someone was unintentionally taking the strength of their twin? What if their existence was killing someone else, sucking the life out of them?"

"Conjoined twins?"

"No," he replied quickly. "Separate."

She laughed again. "Then that's impossible."

"But say it  _was_ possible," Don persisted. "Say it existed. What would you do?"

"I've got no idea," she said, still laughing.

"What if you were the twin sucking out the life of the other one? What would you do?"

"I don't know," she said again. "I guess I'd feel guilty."

"Then what?"

She paused, thinking. "I don't think I'd be able to live with that."

"You'd kill yourself?"

She frowned. "No... but... I dunno. I think I'd try to find a get-out before I considered anything like that."

"A get-out," he repeated slowly. "Like what?"

"I really have no idea," she said, and laughed again. "You don't know what the get-out is until you find it. It would probably have to be surgery or something. And you'd have to find it fast. Why are you asking me this?"

Don quickly put on a smile. "Just testing your doctor ethics. It happened to a friend of mine. He was a Prydonian, strange species."

"Oh," she said, smiling. "Did he find a get-out?"

Don opened his mouth to reply, but it came out as a whisper. "He's still looking."

"I hope he finds it," Martha said, turning to look back up at the sky.

"Me too," Don replied, but it was barely a whisper.

* * *

Rose woke up to the feeling of being dragged.

She struggled on instinct, quickly pulling out of her dragger's grip and stumbling to her feet, trying to get her sense of balance. She managed to focus just in time to realise about six guns were pointing straight at her.

"Where are you taking me?" she demanded to know, with a sense of confidence she was pretty sure she didn't have. "Where are my friends?"

They didn't bother answering her, merely jabbed their guns into her back, forcing her forward up some stairs and along a thin suspended path where Rose could clearly see a prison cell at the other end...

She was about to protest again, when suddenly her ears popped, and pressure in her back vanished. She'd passed through another fracture... And she could see a man in the cell now, restrained with his arms hanging above him.

"Oh, you've returned. Did you bring something even worse this time? I suspect not, since you've not put much thought into your prior visits." The man pulled against the restraints, testing them once again. "And I shall reiterate... I did not kill him."

Rose moved forward slightly, somewhat apprehensive. Jack suddenly stumbled into existence behind her, and breathed a massive sigh of relief.

"Thought we were done for then," Jack muttered, looking back at the invisible wall that denoted the time fracture.

"Jack..." Rose whispered. He finally looked at her, and registered what she was staring at. He quickly put himself in front of Rose, shielding her.

"Unless the Chancellery Guard uniforms have gone Earth retro, early 20th century, World War II, if I'm right and I always am, then you are not them. I also deduce that you must be human, since you are presumably escaping from the Guard. So tell me, am I right? You are both human?"

They both fell silent, glancing at each other nervously. Well, the enemy of my enemy...

"Yeah, we are," Rose said nervously, peeking out from behind Jack.

"I see." He paused. "And how, may I ask, did you manage this feat and arrive on Gallifrey?"

"Enough about us," Jack dismissed, nervously glancing back at the invisible wall. Where was Sarah? They could hardly go back through now... "Why are you here? Who are you? Can we trust you?"

The man suddenly grinned a very disarming grin, his teeth practically perfect. "Why am I here? There is an on-going debate regarding that, but apparently someone believes I killed the President of the High Council. I know I didn't do it, hence the debate. Who am I? Really? I would have thought you, being humans, would have been accused of being my companions. I'm the Doctor, a Time Lord, and more trustworthy than any other person you will find here in the Capitol and possibly the whole of Gallifrey."

Jack and Rose's jaws simultaneously dropped.

* * *

The Doctor was making his way through the Chancellery Tower, trying desperately to remain casual with the markings on his face and the now very severe limp he had. It was a hopeless thing, people were staring as if he had accidentally regenerated with two heads, but retained their impeccable politeness. He knew it could only be a matter of hours until he lost complete function in his left leg... and as if to add insult to injury, why did they have to put so many  _stairs_ in this place?

He had heard a commotion a few minutes ago, something about humans. Jack, Rose and Sarah had been found, then. He could only hope that he'd find the disguises before anything massively severe happened to them... Or the Gallifreyan timeline.

Not to mention the slight anticipation that he'd walk through a time fracture where the tower didn't exist and he'd plummet 100 feet to his imminent death.

But he was trying not to think about that.

Marching boldly forward, he rounded a corner, and his ears popped. He was going through another fracture. He emerged on the other side, taking a quick glance around to try and fathom his new place in the timeline. But it looked exactly the same. He couldn't have moved far.

Shrugging it off, he moved forwards, and walked straight into someone coming out of an adjoining corridor.

"Oh!" they both exclaimed, bouncing back.

"Excuse me," the Doctor said.

"So sorry," a blond-haired man apologised, straightening up his celery and making to move off again, as did the Doctor... and then he stopped, turned... And realised.

"Oh blimey," he whispered.


	22. Deja Who

"You!" the Doctor said, staring at the other man. "It's you!"

"Oh! Me?" the blond-haired man asked, confused.

"Exactly!" the Doctor yelled back in delight.

"I'm sorry? Now just what is going on here..." the blond man sounded very confused indeed, just as a woman with dark-blonde hair stepped up beside him...

"Nyssa!" the Doctor yelled in instant recognition, absolutely delighted. Before he could stop himself, he launched onto her in a huge hug. When he finally pulled away she looked as though she'd been slapped in the face.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm..." the Doctor suddenly paused, frowning. "I don't remember having this conversation before."

"If you don't mind," the blond man began, bouncing on his toes. "We really must be off..."

"When you go up that corridor there's going to be a Chancellery guard around the corner," the Doctor said through his frown. "Then one is going to leap out behind you. When you escape them and run into the next corridor Commander Maxil is going to appear and shoot you in the chest."

The blond man stared at him. "Well thank you," he said, befoe turning to run down the corridor with Nyssa close behind, giving one final confused glance at the Doctor. The Doctor followed, peeking around the corner...

And watched himself and Nyssa escape without a scratch into the lift.

Suddenly there was the popping sound in his ears followed by a rush of footsteps from behind him and he turned just in time to find the same blond man crash into him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the Fifth Doctor said, and then stopped, staring at him... "Have we met before?"

The Doctor stared. "A few times."

Nyssa appeared behind him, looking around anxiously. The Doctor casually stepped back and waved his arm. "Very sorry," he said, and began to walk in the opposite direction. He waited until his fifth self had gone before quietly walking backwards to the corridor again, peeking his head around the corner... Where he saw himself get shot as it had all happened before. He winced and held his chest, considering what this meant.

Yes! A time loop inside a time fracture. On this Gallifrey events were destined to happen repeatedly as they had within their fractures, with no effect on long term causality...

Maybe getting the Eye wouldn't be so hard.

He grinned to himself and stepped through the wall of the time fracture.

* * *

"You're the Doctor," Rose repeated slowly.

"You have heard of me, then? Once your brain processes that, we'll continue the conversation," the man replied. "But what puzzles me, and I am not generally familiar with the feeling of being puzzled, is how two humans have wound up in the Gallifreyan Ci..."

He suddenly trailed off, looking over Rose's shoulder with wide, shocked eyes. Rose turned to find Sarah had finally come through the time fracture, and she was staring back at the man with just as much shock...

"... Sarah?" was all the man croaked, for once completely speechless.

"Doctor," Sarah whispered, tears filling her eyes. "It's you. Old you..."

"Why are you here, Sarah?" the Doctor demanded to know. "You're in danger! Grave danger! Humans aren't allowed on Gallifrey!"

"Doctor..." Sarah whispered, moving forward. "It's been years... What have you done to yourself?"

The Doctor ignored her question. "What are you doing here? You... You're..."

"Old?" Sarah wondered tentatively, smiling. She looked at Jack and Rose, who were obviously very confused. "Jack, Rose, this is the Doctor in a previous body..."

"Fourth," the Doctor said instantly. "This means you know me in another body, yes?"

"Your Tenth," Sarah clarified, as Jack and Rose were obviously too stunned to talk.

"Oh, am I as brilliant in my Tenth body as I am now? Well, obviously not. There's only one great Doctor. So where is he? And what are you all doing here?"

"Long story, look, we'd better go..." Jack said quickly, already backing away in the direction of the fracture. "Sarah."

Sarah looked back at Jack, and nodded. There could be an effect on causality just by them being here, even if it was an echoed copy. Better safe than sorry...

They started back towards the fracture, but just as they were reaching the fracture line their ears popped and the shock caused them to stop abruptly. Then a voice bellowed from the cell...

"Oh, you've returned. Did you bring something even worse this time? I suspect not, since you've not put much thought into your prior visits. And I shall reiterate... I did not kill him."

They looked back to find the Fourth Doctor standing there as before, staring at them all... With an expression that turned into utter confusion. "... Sarah?" he croaked.

Jack, Rose and Sarah didn't reply, just looking at each other.

"We need to find the Doctor," Rose muttered, stepping through the fracture, and in quick succession the other three followed.

"I leave you for what, twenty minutes?" a familiar voice said from in front of them. "Stay here. Hide. Wait longer. Any of these sounding familiar to you?"

"Doctor!" Rose exclaimed, launching forward to hug him tightly and almost sending him toppling backwards. "You won't believe what just happened..."

"You met a previous me?" the Doctor wondered.

"... How'd you guess?"

The Doctor grinned and nodded to Sarah, who was standing there with the biggest smile on her face.

"Teeth and curls?" the Doctor wondered.

Sarah nodded, still smiling.

"Doc," Jack interrupted urgently. "Your other self, he just sorta seemed to repeat himself..."

"He's stuck in a time loop," the Doctor clarified. "Inside the fractures there are time loops, repeating these moments of time in the fractures over and over."

"There were two Rose's earlier," Sarah announced suddenly. "One just appeared out of nowhere and started yelling after Jack, then Jack followed the ghost Rose and Rose ran after him yelling."

"Time loop void fracture," the Doctor replied, nodding as if it confirmed something. "Jack, you followed the Rose who was actually following you. Oh, timey wimey, don't you love it?" He beamed.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Okay, enough chat, what's next?"

"Put these on," the Doctor said, drawing out a pile of clothes from his dimensionally transcendental pockets. "Guard uniforms. Should keep you out of mind when we go into the Panopticon." He handed them around, then smiled at them all with that Tenth Doctor smile. "We're gonna meet and greet the Lord President of Gallifrey."

* * *

"Many believe that the Great Key has been lost," Lord President Saran said to the group of students. "That maybe its existence is nothing but a fabrication."

"Then how is it possible to enter it?" Theta asked, confused.

"I believe all future questions should be directed to the Chancellor, Theta," Saran seemingly evaded the question, and suddenly straightened up. "Please, explore the Panopticon fully with your students, Cardinal Brabbajaggl. If you'll excuse me."

Brabbajaggl bowed as the Lord President turned and moved off. Their teacher seemed quite a lot happier than he had before, with his students gripped in complete silence.

"We will continue then, shall we?" he said with a smile, turning in a flourish of his robe and starting off through the Panopticon again, his students in silent tow.

Except for Theta. He just stared after the retreating President, trying to make sense of what he'd said. It'd almost been like a set of instructions...

He soon jolted back to reality, and found his class were disappearing around a corner. Quickly, he made off after them, but he was so absorbed in thought he completely failed to realise someone was walking towards him, and ended up colliding with a stranger. He jumped and pulled back instantly, murmuring an apology before he looked up at the stranger. He met a pair of deep brown eyes staring down at him, the stranger's wild brown hair all sticky uppy and he was dressed in blue suit, covered by a light brown trench-coat.

"Sorry," the stranger said quickly, and hastily moved off with a crowd of Guards following him.

Theta frowned. Something wasn't right about the stranger. He quickly glanced at his class, rapidly disappearing in the throng of people in the Panopticon, and then back at the stranger.

Making an impulse decision, he turned, and followed the man in the trench-coat.

* * *

The Doctor caught sight of Saran, just about to enter the lift.

"My Lord President!" the Doctor yelled, limping forward as fast as he could.

Saran turned with his guards to regard this strange new man, frowning. "You seem to be diseased, friend. Seek a hospitaller," he advised, and turned away again in the flurry of a cloak.

The Doctor moved forward again. "My Lord President, please," he persisted. "You must help me."

Saran turned back to regard him again. "I'm sorry, perhaps a regeneration would cure you?"

"It's not that," the Doctor said quickly. "I've..." He glanced nervously at the Chancellory Guard standing vigil beside their President. "I've... come back."

Saran stared at him, leaning forward slightly. "Theta?" he asked lowly.

The Doctor gave a short, sharp nod.

Saran drew back, and looked at the departing class of Cardinal Brabbajaggl just across the room before looking back at the Doctor. "Then perhaps I  _can_  help you," he said loudly, drawing back. "Guards, please will you escort this man to my office."

"No," the Doctor cut in before the guards could move. "My Lord President, I'm sorry, but it must be here." Saran seemed sceptical. "Please, you must trust me."

Saran finally nodded. "Very well. Guards, please disperse, this is a confidential matter."

The guards seemed to hesitate, before the one at the front spoke, almost timidly. "My Lord President, are you sure this is wise?"

"Perhaps you are suggesting I am incapable of looking after myself?" Saran said, staring at the man.

"No!" the guard said quickly. "No, I was not suggesting that."

"Then may I suggest you and your Guard take a small break?"

"Yes, my Lord," the guard replied, slightly flustered. "Thank you, my Lord." They saluted in unison, and then left. The Doctor turned back to Jack, Rose and Sarah, beckoning them over before turning back to Saran.

"These are my friends, Lord President," he said quickly. "They're human. I'm sorry, I wouldn't have brought them here if they weren't needed..."

"It's quite all right," Saran said with a smile, completely surprising the Doctor. He shook the hands of the three humans in turn, pausing for a moment on Jack, but he soon shook it and gestured for them all to take a seat.

"My Lord..." the Doctor began.

"I know why you are here," Saran interjected. "And I know it must happen. You have come to take the Eye of Harmony. And you, Theta..." He gazed at the Doctor for a moment, before he had to look away. "I am sorry for what is happening to you."

The Doctor blinked in surprise. "My Lord... may I ask, how do you know this?"

"Prophecies tend to be such troublesome things," Saran answered vaguely. "You are very brave, Theta. You have done no less than what was expected of you. I am sorry, you must have suffered greatly in your life."

The Doctor did not react visually, only spoke. "... How does the prophecy end?"

"I believe the answer lies on your skin, Theta," Saran replied simply, before changing the subject. "You have come for guidance?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, my Lord. I wish to access the Caldera and retrieve the Eye."

"To take where?"

"Back to the creature Rassilon and Omega stole it from."

"But the Eye is but a nucleus of a black hole," Saran insisted.

The Doctor swallowed nervously. "My Lord, I'm going out on a limb here, but I have reason to believe the black hole Rassilon and Omega created was more complex than they thought. I believe they created a transdimensional black hole, and that they passed through the event horizon and into the void. There they found a creature they had never encountered, a creature possibly lying dormant. They took a part of that creature and came back through..."

"You are aware this is blasphemy," Saran interrupted.

"Yes, my Lord. I'm sorry, but the creature is back. It knew I was a Time Lord, and demanded an 'Eye'. It was very angry with me. We have stolen its possession and now it will consume the entire cosmos, parallel worlds as well. I'm sorry my Lord, I'm so sorry, but we must give it back for the sake of creation."

"... You speak with no concern for the damage the removal of the Eye of Harmony would do to Gallifrey..." Saran said slowly, already realising what this meant.

The Doctor could barely look at him. "I'm sorry."

Saran took a deep breath, and nodded. "... Then you must take the Eye."

"Where is the Great Key?"

"It is an artefact shrouded in secrecy. I am afraid I do not possess it. I should not even know of its existence. Perhaps Chancellor Umbaste may be able to assist you."

The Doctor nodded, already getting to his feet. "Thank you, Lord President."

Saran also got up, as did Jack, Rose and Sarah, who had remained completely silent throughout the exchange. "Good luck, Theta," he said sincerely, extending his hand to shake.

The Doctor took it and bowed as he shook the Lord President's hand. "Thank you," he said, and turned away.

"Oh, and Theta," Saran said, striding forwards towards the Doctor with something in his hand. The Doctor turned back and looked at it. "I believe this is the appropriate time for you to see this."

The Doctor blinked, and took the proffered object. It was a memory chip, engraved with the markings 'DW74563-52Z'.

He looked back up and Saran, confused. "What is this?"

"A confidential datafile," Saran clarified. "Your TARDIS should be able to read it."

"What's in it?"

"You."

"... What?"

"Who you are, Theta. The truth. The prophecy."

"But..."

"I know it's difficult to believe, Theta, but the datafile should tell you everything you need to know. Now if you'll excuse me, I have already said too much," he said, nervously glancing around him, before he began to walk away, if but a little hastily.

For a moment the Doctor stared at the chip in his hand before he looked back up at the retreating Lord President.

And saw him get shot directly through the head by the Chancellery Guard that had previously been protecting him.

There were several cries of alarm in the Panopticon, and as the smoking body of the ex-Lord President lay smouldering on the floor, the guard who had shot him looked up at the Doctor, and took aim.

"Run!" Jack yelled, grabbing the Doctor's arm and yanking him to the side just as the shot glanced by his head.

"Kill him!" the guard yelled. "He's assassinated the President!"

Suddenly the entire Chancellery Guard in the Panopticon were on them. They ran desperately trying to find a fracture line, the Doctor stumbling and panting behind them. Jack grabbed him around the middle and threw him over his shoulder quickly, running with him to follow the others fleeing into the corridor.

They passed through a fracture, but Jack could feel something suddenly pull down on his leg and he stumbled, crashing to the floor in a jumbled heap with the Doctor.

* * *

"I got 'em!" Theta yelled, scrambling to his feet before whirling around to face the corridor they'd just run down expecting to see the pursuing guards... But he got nothing but silence back. Eyes wide, he turned back to the crowd of people, alarmed...

"What? How'd he get through?" a blonde woman asked quickly, staring at Theta and glancing at the assassin.

"He must've been holding onto one of us..." the assassin muttered, accepting some help to his feet from another woman.

"He's the kid you bumped into earlier," the black-haired man realised, looking at the assassin.

"He's a little more than that..." the assassin muttered, staring at Theta.

Theta decided to stand his ground. "I saw you!" he yelled. "You shot the Lord President! You killed him! How did you get rid of the guard? I'm turning you in! I'm not afraid of you!"

"Theta," the assassin began, limping forward to him.

"How do you know my name?" Theta demanded, shocked, still riveted to the spot. "Do you know my Father?"

"Theta," the assassin interrupted. "We didn't kill the President. One of his own guard shot him when we asked for help."

"Why should I trust you? Murderer!"

The assassin sighed. "We don't have time for this," he breathed, looking at the others and starting back towards them. "Let's go."

"Wait!" Theta yelled, moving forward.

The assassin ignored him. "Go back to your class, Theta."

"What happened that made the guard disappear?"

"Theta, you wouldn't understand," the assassin grated, looking at him. "Go back to Brabbajaggl."

"No!"

"Ignore him," the assassin said, gesturing for the others to follow him as they started off down the corridor, leaving Theta standing there.

"You know what?" Theta yelled. "Maybe you do know my Father! And all my cousins! Because you're just like them!"

The assassin suddenly froze on the spot, the others watching as his eyes narrowed.

"Take that back," he grated.

"No!"

The assassin turned around and limped to the boy, finger pointing at him. "Take that back!"

* * *

"Why should I?" Theta yelled.

The Doctor reached him, gazing down at the teenage-looking boy in Prydon Academy robes, who was staring at the Doctor with slightly scared but determined eyes. The Doctor leant forward and Theta flinched slightly, but the Doctor just whispered something in the boy's ear, then drew back.

Instantly the boy stiffened, his eyes wide. "How do you know that? No one knows that!"

"Because I'm you."

"What?"

"From the future. I'm you, in your Tenth body."

"That's rubbish!" the boy scoffed.

"How else would I know about that?" the Doctor challenged.

Theta bristled slightly, staring at the Doctor, lost for words. He had a very good point. It was a few moments before he spoke again, but when it came out it was very quiet. "... What happened to the Guard?"

"We passed through a time fracture and they disappeared, as they are not part of this time fracture. This isn't the real Gallifrey, it's an echoed copy, and inside the fracture moments of time will repeat themselves over and over. Me and my friends, we're from reality so we can step through the fractures. You, however, you are part of this echoed existence. You passed through the fracture by having contact with us. Right now, you are an echo of who I was back then."

"Oh," Theta said quietly. Then he thought for a moment. "... What are you doing here?"

"We're going to Chancellor Umbaste's office to find out where the Great Key is, to retrieve the Eye of Harmony from the Caldera, to take it back to the creature Rassilon and Omega stole it from so we can save the entirety of existence."

Theta stared at him, obviously not quite sure how to react to that. "And what are those marks on your hands and face?"

"I'm ill," the Doctor replied simply.

Theta stared at him some more.

"Do you believe me?" the Doctor wondered.

Theta again continued to gaze at him for a little longer, and then slowly nodded. "Yeah."

The Doctor grinned at him supportively.

"I'm sorry I said you were like... Well, you know," Theta said quietly.

"It's okay," the Doctor replied, nodding. "But we have to go now."

"Can I come with you?" Theta wondered. He saw the Doctor frown slightly, then quickly cut over him. "Hey, when I walk back through that fracture thing I won't remember any of this, right? I'll just be doing the same thing over and over. I can't walk back to that. Let me come with you? Maybe I can help?"

The Doctor considered this, looking back at the others, who all just shrugged nonchalantly. He looked back as Theta, mulling it over.

"All right then," he conceded, and Theta grinned triumphantly. "Just keep holding onto us so you can walk through the fractures."

Theta nodded eagerly, following the Doctor as he returned to the group. Sarah offered her hand and he took it, smiling up at her.

"I'm Sarah," Sarah Jane said with a smile. "This is Rose," she pointed to the young blonde woman, who smiled and waved. "This is Jack," she pointed to the black-haired man who grinned. "And you call yourself the Doctor, now," she said, gesturing to Theta's older self.

"Really?" Theta wondered, staring at the Doctor. "Weird."

The Doctor just rolled his eyes, and started off again in a limp. "You'll think of it in a few years!" he yelled over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner.


	23. Fred

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE: I have researched Gallifrey and all the customs, history and its people to absolute death for this story because I really didn't want to get anything wrong. All of what I'm writing is pretty much 100 percent accurate in some form or another in some book somewhere. I have made a couple of additions and tweaks but they're all pretty minor, just to make the story go to the way I want to or to give detail on the more obscure things. But the history of Doctor Who itself is so conflicting that one version of events can easily contradict another, so I've tried to iron it all out and make it all a perfect whole. So my version of everything on Gallifrey may not be one you agree with, but I've tried my best, tried to make things work together, or just chosen one version of events.

They reached the Chancellor's office with relative ease. The door was locked, but within moments the Doctor had his sonic in hand.

"We'll go in, restrain him, find the key and get out," the Doctor said quietly to the others. "Quick as possible. Once we have the key, we need to find the Sash and Rod from the President's chambers, then we'll go into the vaults and to the Caldera. Okay?"

He got a group of nods back.

Theta watched his older self move forward to buzz the door open, but he quickly interrupted. "Wait," he said, throwing off his Academy robes to lose some weight. The Doctor looked at him quizzically before Theta dived in to take the sonic from his unsuspecting hand.

"Leave it with me," he said simply.

"But..." the Doctor began, startled to find his younger self had grabbed the sonic so quickly.

"Hide around the corner, I'll give you ten minutes," Theta cut over him, stepping forward to the door.

"Don't go through a fracture," Sarah warned anxiously.

Theta scoffed. "As if," he replied, and buzzed the door. It slid back, and he stepped inside.

Chancellor Umbaste was sitting at his desk, checking his data terminal. He looked up sharply at the entry of Theta, and his eyes widened.

"What are you doing here, boy? This area is out of bounds!" he demanded, surprised.

"Just checking out the Panopticon, sir, I'm on a class trip," Theta replied with a winning smile as he strolled around the room, leisurely picking up an ornament and inspecting it carefully. "Oh, nice," he complimented, throwing the ornament from hand to hand. "This is pretty cool!"

"Put that down, boy! It's delicate!" Umbaste yelled in fury, rising from his chair.

"Doesn't look delicate," Theta commented, making to set it down... But he purposely imbalanced it on the table and it fell to the floor, smashing on impact.

Theta looked at Umbaste, lips pouted. "Umm... looks like it  _was_  delicate."

"You little Staazula!" Umbaste swore, marching towards the boy and grabbing his collar roughly. "What is your name? Your House will hear about this!"

"Up yours," Theta replied, and kicked him in the nuts. Umbaste let go of him and yelled in fury and pain, doubling over as Theta quickly ran out the door into the corridor.

"Too slow!" Theta mocked, grinning.

"Guards!" Umbaste yelled, straightening up as best he could to rummage for something on his desk.

"Looking for this?" Theta wondered, holding up Umbaste's security alarm box.

Umbaste's eyes widened, absolutely furious. "Come back here you little...!" he yelled, making out into the corridor towards the boy.

"Come on, old man!" Theta yelled in delight, skipping backwards up the corridor. Umbaste charged instantly and Theta spun on his heel and was off in an instant running down the corridor, quite used to being pursued by an angry superior by now. He and the yelling Umbaste disappeared around the corner.

Rose looked at the Doctor, laughing. "He is so you," she said. The Doctor just grinned in reply and led the group inside the office. They promptly split up and began to hunt around the room.

Five minutes later, nothing had turned up and they gathered in the centre of the room again, considering their options.

"Maybe he doesn't have the key?" Sarah wondered.

"No, it's definitely here," the Doctor muttered, tapping his chin with his one working hand. The room was silent as the Doctor mulled it over. "Maybe we just..." he trailed off, eyes slowly panning up to the picture on the wall of the key. "... Need to look in the more  _obvious_  places!" he completed in delight, moving over to the mounted picture and clambering onto a chair to inspect the picture.

"Okay," he muttered, glancing at the others. "Not sure what to do next."

"Put your hand on it?" Sarah suggested.

The Doctor shrugged in reply, putting his hand on the picture. Instantly there was a flash of blinding light and his hand seemed to snap to the surface of the picture, stuck fast as swirls of golden light erupted from his palm. He yelled in pain, instantly alarming the others before he suddenly felt himself being dragged forward, and his arm began to disappear into the picture, his entire body being pulled in...

He blinked for one second, and suddenly found himself in the dark. The sound of footsteps approached him. He quickly scrambled to his feet, feeling a little like bit he was drunk.

"Welcome to the anti-time universe, don't worry, you're not drunk, you're just not used to time here," a voice suddenly said, and the Doctor realised through a hazy brain he was standing in front of another person, but it was as though they were sliding in and out of focus and he couldn't get a real grip on who he was looking at. "Just checking it's you – what's your common name and house?"

"Theta Sigma, the Doctor, from the House of Lungbarrow," the Doctor replied, though it felt like his voice was a million miles away.

"And what's your mission?" the voice asked.

"To retrieve the Great Key, access the Caldera and take the Eye of Harmony back to the creature it belongs to."

Suddenly a fully focused hand stretched out, holding the Great Key to him. With uncoordinated hand movements the Doctor reached out and took the sacred object, slipping it inside his jacket pocket.

"It's all yours," the voice said, and it sounded so familiar... "Do us proud, right old man?"

Then footsteps turned and walked away, and there was another flash of light – a transmat? He closed his eyes just for a few seconds... and then found himself lying on the floor of the Chancellor's office, Jack, Sarah, Rose all looking down at him, worried.

"Doctor!" Sarah gasped. "Are you okay? You flew backwards and passed out."

"I'm fine," the Doctor breathed, frowning a little as he sat up, helped by Rose. He reached up to his inside jacket pocket, and drew out the Great Key. "We've got it."

* * *

They met Theta in the corridor on the way to the President's chambers, having locked the Chancellor in a cupboard. He grinned and gave the sonic back to the Doctor. "Got the Key?" he asked.

The Doctor nodded, slipping the sonic back into his pocket. "Thanks."

"Used to it," Theta replied casually with a wave of his hand.

"I know," the Doctor replied with a grin before he turned to lead them to the President's chambers. The Doctor opened the door... And froze instantly as a woman screamed.

"Naked Romana!" the Doctor yelped, covering his eyes. "I'm so sorry!"

"What in the name of  _Rassilon_ do you think you are doing  _waltzing_ into my chambers like that! Guards!"

"No! Romana!" the Doctor said quickly, holding up his hand, then realising she was still naked and covering his eyes again quickly. "It's me, it's the Doctor!"

Romana grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her quickly, studying him. "Doctor?"

"Yeah!" the Doctor replied quickly, hand pressing so hard into his face it was beginning to hurt.

Romana considered this for a moment. "... New body?"

"Yes."

She thought some more. "Guards!" she yelled anyway, but the Doctor quickly moved forward to grab her by the shoulder.

"Get off of me! Guards!" Romana yelled again, shoving him away roughly.

"Romanadvoratrelundar in her third incarnation!" the Doctor shouted, and Romana suddenly froze.

"When did  _you_  bother to learn my name?" she wondered.

"Romana, I don't have time. You're the Lady President at the moment, yes?" the Doctor asked quickly.

"I knew you were stupid, but not that stupid," Romana replied indignantly. "Of course I'm the Lady President, and how about I get some respect?"

"Yeah, yeah," the Doctor muttered, shoving her aside to search the chambers, throwing everything into the air.

"Doctor!" Romana shrieked, cleaning up things behind his destructive path. "Would you mind explaining what you are doing before I have you arrested?"

"Romana, sit down and shut up for once," the Doctor replied rudely, hardly in the mood. "I need the Sash and the Rod, where are they?"

Romana's jaw dropped. "Do you think I'd give them to  _you_ of all people?"

"Romana, seriously," the Doctor said in exasperation, turning back to her.

"Stop calling me Romana!" Romana demanded angrily.

"Fred, seriously," the Doctor amended. "This is life or death end-of-the-entirety-of-existence. I need the Sash and the Rod and I need them now."

"What for?" Romana demanded to know.

"To retrieve the Eye of Harmony from the Caldera."

"Are you a little moreinsane than I thought?"Romana yelped. "That will destroy Gallifrey!"

"Believe me, it doesn't matter," the Doctor replied, turning back to search again.

"How can that not matter?" Romana yelled, striding after him still dressed in just a towel.

"No time to explain," the Doctor said simply. "Either tell me where they are or get lost."

"Guards!" Romana yelled again.

"They're not coming," a voice suddenly said from the doorway and Romana whirled around to find three humans and a Gallifreyan boy strolling in.

"Doctor!" Romana grated, looking frantically between the crowd and the Doctor. "You are breaking every  _single_  law in..."

"Fred, calm down," the Doctor said insincerely, looking up at the group. "Help me look."

The crowd instantly dispersed to hunt through the chambers, and Jack strolled up to Romana with a charismatic smile and an outstretched hand. "Cap'n Jack Harkness... And  _who_  are you?"

"Jack," the Doctor grated. "I swear, if you flirt with her I am going to leave you here when the planet gets destroyed."

"I was just saying hello!" Jack insisted.

"Get away you stupid human!" Romana spat at Jack, moving over to the Doctor again. "Doctor, I demand an explanation!"

"Okay," the Doctor began, spinning around. "Let me explain. You don't exist. None of this planet exists. Years ago for me, Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time War and erased from existence. But this is an echoed copy in the void. We found it while we were talking to an incomprehensible being living in the void which is now consuming the entirety of every single Universe. The only thing it wants to stop this is its eye; the Eye of Harmony. Rassilon and Omega stole it and believed it to be the nucleus of the black hole. It doesn't matter if this place is destroyed, because you don't exist anyway. You live in a time-looped time fracture. Gallifrey has been long since dead, Romana, I'm just trying to save the rest of existence. Now where are the Rod and the Sash?"

Romana just stared at him for a moment. But before she could answer, Rose yelped in delight and waved the Sash and the Rod in the air.

"These what you're lookin' for?" she asked.

"Yes!" the Doctor boomed happily, taking the Rod in his working hand as Rose cradled the Sash. "We'll find the vaults and get to the Caldera," he told the others, who all nodded back. He turned to the door and led the group back out the room without so much as a glance at Romana.

"Doctor!" Romana screamed, waddling after them as best she could but she couldn't catch up. The group passed through the door and the Doctor buzzed it shut with the sonic, locking it.

"DOCTOR!" she shrieked, muffled. "COME BACK! You are  _not_ outsmarting me! Come back and unlock your Lady President!"

"Sorry my Lady President, got stuff to do," the Doctor replied insincerely, and made off with Romana's yells progressively retreating to a muffle in the distance.

"Ex-wife?" Jack wondered, grinning.

"Oh, please," the Doctor began indignantly. "I'd rather marry an Abzorbaloff. Don't get me wrong, she's not always been that annoying. She was annoying when we first met in her first incarnation, but then got a lot better in her second... And then she got to her third incarnation, the one you just saw, and hated pretty much everything, me in particular. Also that incarnation looks a little like my mother. And that's not something I like to really think about too often."

He led the group into a lift, and buzzed the controls with the sonic. Then he opened a secret panel and pressed one of the buttons.

"The vaults," he explained to the others. "Should be a twenty minute walk to the Caldera after this. Everyone okay?"

He got four nods back.

"What happens after we get the Eye?" Jack asked.

"We go back to the TARDIS, go back into the void and return the Eye to its rightful owner."

"What about me?" Theta asked.

The Doctor looked at him, considering. "I don't know..."

"You say I don't really exist," Theta began, trying to sort it all out in his head. "But don't I technically exist now, moving through the fractures with you? Do you think... When you leave Gallifrey... I could come with you? And exist outside these fractures?"

The Doctor gave a half-smile. "I'm not sure. Maybe you'll be able to live outside of the void. Just keep holding onto one of us, maybe we'll be able to take you back to the real Earth. But I can't say for sure."

Theta grinned and nodded. The Doctor gave a small smile back, and the lift began to descend.


	24. The Eye

The doors through the vault to the Caldera were all locked and protected with security codes getting more and more difficult as they went on. They met no one, their ears continuously popping as they passed through the fractures, which were getting closer and closer together. But as the Doctor had promised, it was twenty minutes until they reached the entrance to the Caldera. Or at least, they all assumed it to be. It was a huge golden metal door, a perfect circle at least five floors high and just as wide. It was etched with ancient markings, which the others presumed to be Gallifreyan of some sorts.

The Doctor stopped outside, considering this. "Well, this is a little different to last time," he mused.

"Different?" Rose questioned anxiously.

"Newer... We must be in a fracture in the Time of Legend when this was recently installed..."

"Look," Theta suddenly said, striding over to a control panel.

"Oh dear," the Doctor muttered, moving to the panel. "This combination is a twelve digit code with twelve possible numbers to use and reuse... Making 8,916,100,448,256 possible combinations to try in 200 seconds..."

Everyone stared at him.

"... Can you do that?" Jack wondered.

"Of course not," the Doctor replied haughtily. "It's almost completely impossible."

Rose frowned. "You mean... We can't get in?"

"No," the Doctor croaked.

"We've come all this way for nothing," Sarah realised dully.

"Yeah..."

There was a silence.

"No," Jack said suddenly, staring at the panel. "We can't just give up."

"It would take 182 millenniums to try every possible combination," the Doctor grated, feeling very angry at the situation. "I mean, we're talking the length of time between the evolution of the first ever modern humans and 2010. And I have to get it in 200 seconds. Sure, it's possible, but it's a 1 in 9 trillion chance."

There was another long silence.

"Try it," Theta said suddenly.

"What?" the Doctor asked disbelievingly.

"Try it," Theta repeated.

"Didn't you just hear me? There's no point, Rassilon really doesn't want anyone in the Caldera."

"I reckon he does," Theta insisted. "I think he knew this was coming at some point. I think if you give it a go, it might let you in, because we were always meant to do this."

There was another silence as the Doctor stared at his younger self, frowning.

"Just try it?" Theta asked quietly.

The Doctor pulled a face, and looked down at the panel. He took a breath, and stabbed twelve random numbers into the panel. It flashed once redundantly in indication it hadn't been the right combination. The Doctor looked at Theta.

"Keep trying," the boy said.

Without protest, the Doctor put in twelve random numbers again. It flashed. Then he tried again. And again. And again.

He finally drew back, hand in the air. "This isn't going to happen."

"It will, just listen to me," Theta protested. "Everyone's going on about destiny and prophecy and inevitability... Lord President Saran knew what you were there to do... And when he talked to me it was like instructing me what I had to do when I became you. We're meant to get in the Caldera, and we can't give up. We can't just stop and say, 'hey, sorry the entirety of creation but we couldn't save you, we wimped out at the last bit and didn't even bother trying'..."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, staring at his younger self in consideration. "Okay," he finally breathed, then hammered in another combination. It flashed. Then again. Again. Again. Again. Then he hammered in his twelfth combination, and suddenly the panel flashed and locked, and before anyone could gauge what it meant, the massive golden doors suddenly started sliding back, freshly installed and without so much as a squeak, opening the path into an abyss of darkness – a tunnel with no light that disappeared into the blackness of the distance.

The Doctor laughed, and looked at Theta. "Thanks," he said seriously.

Theta nodded back, grinning proudly.

The Doctor turned to the others. "You can't come in, the Caldera would kill humans. I have to go on my own."

"You can't go on your own, what if..." Rose trailed off, swallowing. "What if you get too sick to make it back?"

"I'll go," Theta suddenly said, stepping forward. "I can take it, right?" he asked, looking at the Doctor.

The Doctor frowned. "I suppose, but..."

"C'mon then, old man," Theta interrupted, grabbing the Doctor's arm and taking the Sash and Rod from Rose. "I'll make sure we get it."

"Fine," the Doctor conceded, looking at the others. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

"Good luck," Sarah said with a supportive smile. The Doctor and Theta nodded, then stepped into the Caldera.

* * *

They walked an extremely long way down the dark path, the only illumination being from the Doctor's torch that Theta was holding. Now Theta and the Doctor were alone, Theta knew it was his opportunity to quiz his future self on a few important issues.

"How old are you?" he wondered as they walked.

"Umm, I say 900, but I'm probably a few hundred years out," the Doctor admitted ruefully.

"That's young," Theta realised. "What incarnation are you?"

"Tenth," the Doctor replied.

"Wow, what, you throw yourself into the venomous fangs of a Taipan every couple of hundred years?"

The Doctor laughed. "Something like that."

"What has your life been like?" Theta wondered.

"Dangerous," the Doctor replied, looking at Theta. "But fun."

Theta laughed. "I guess now I might go back to Earth my future is gonna be rewritten," he began again. "So you can tell me anything about you, right?"

"Right," the Doctor confirmed, nodding.

"You have your own TARDIS, right? How did you get it?"

"Stole it," the Doctor admitted with a sniff.

Theta's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Whoa."

"I had to," the Doctor explained. "While I was at the Time Academy my House perceived me as a disappointment and I was disinherited and banished. I lost my name, I mean, my real name. The Academy was going to expel me. I got a couple of Doctorates but after that I just realised I hated everything about Gallifreyan society, so I stole a TARDIS and ran away. Though..." He smiled gently. "Sometimes I think she stole me."

Theta gazed at him, considering this for a moment. "Wow. Did me, Koschei and Magnus go together?"

"No. I was going to take Ruath but I left her behind in the end. I was a renegade, it wasn't suited to her."

Theta nodded slowly, struggling to take this all in. "So how did all your bodies die?"

"Oh, let me think," the Doctor breathed, trying to reach that far back in his mind. "My first, your one, when I was young I had a severe catabolism. I got better, but I lost most of my dexterity, I was in pain constantly and eventually I just gave up and regenerated. Second body, the Celestial Intervention Agency and the Time Lords used me for undercover work, and I ended up getting prosecuted for stealing a TARDIS and violating the first law of time – one of my bodies was confiscated and I was exiled to Sol 3..."

"That's so not fair!" Theta protested.

"Well I was hardly in a position to demand anything," the Doctor supposed. "As a consequence of that, third body I spent entirely on Sol 3, working for a Sol 3 organisation called UNIT that dealt with aliens. That one was killed by radiation. Fourth, fell off a radio telescope dealing with the Master. Oh yes, Koschei is your enemy in the future, calls himself the Master. Sorry."

Theta blinked. "But..."

"Fifth, Spectrox toxaemia. Only had one antidote and I gave it to my companion. Sixth, oh... You'll like this. Rani attacked the TARDIS with everything she had..."

"Rani?" Theta exclaimed disbelievingly. "You mean...  _Rani,_ Rani?"

"Yep. She attacked my TARDIS, it crashed badly and I died. Seventh, was shot, but that didn't kill me, it was a human woman poking about in my circulatory system afterwards that did it. Eighth was killed... In a War. Ninth absorbed the time vortex from Rose..."

"Rose back out there?" Theta asked.

The Doctor nodded. "I absorbed it from her and died from it. Now we're on number Ten."

Theta grinned. "Wonder how you'll die? What d'you reckon our Eleventh will look like?" he asked, laughing.

The Doctor fell absolutely silent. There was an uncomfortably long pause.

Theta stared at him. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

The Doctor didn't reply.

Theta gazed at him for moment, then he realised the black marks he had just presumed to be a sickness… "... Are you dying?"

"... Yes."

"There's no cure?"

"Nope."

"What about regeneration?"

"I don't think I can," the Doctor muttered, scratching the back of his head.

"But there is a chance?"

"Maybe."

They sank into silence again. Theta didn't know what to say, and neither did the Doctor. Thankfully pretty soon the endless tunnel opened up into a massive spherical space, beams of lights bouncing around and shooting up through a hole in the roof. They could see their destination in the centre of the spherical room where the Power Mast could be accessed.

"Okay," the Doctor began, staring at the sight. "I think there might be a barrier of anti-matter between us and the Eye. It'll feel a little weird on your body, but if we keep holding onto each other we should come out the other side."

"Okay," Theta replied, nodding and taking the Doctor's functioning hand. They glanced at each other, took a deep breath, and stepped forward.

Instantly Theta felt extremely disorientated. The Doctor was walking them forward and Theta did his best to walk with him, but every time he raised his leg it felt like he was raising an arm, and each step forward it felt like he was stepping backwards onto a rising platform that came to meet his feet. His entire body seemed to be scattered around like it was part of the air itself, his head on his feet, his feet on his hands, his hands inside his body and his insides stuck somewhere up on the ceiling. He kept a firm grip on his older self, trying to not let go of the Sash and the Rod though it felt like he was holding nothing.

He felt extremely nauseous to say the least, and there was an amazing sense of labyrinthitis. It felt like he was going to fall over at any moment, and if he did then it seemed like he was going to fall an extremely long way. It seemed like forever until they came out the other side, but even as they stepped back into the real world Theta was clutching onto his older self's hand desperately.

"Are you okay?" the Doctor asked seriously, staring at his younger self.

"I'm gonna throw up," Theta rasped, doubled over and still clutching onto his older self. Then true to his word, he turned to the side and vomited all over the Caldera floor.

"That isn't gonna get cleaned up," the Doctor joked, then flinched as his younger self threw up again. "Okay, look at me."

Theta raised his head, frowning and barely able to focus. The Doctor reached up to his temple and closed his eyes. Soon the sickness began to subside and Theta felt a little more focused.

The Doctor opened his eyes again and looked at him, concerned. "Better?"

"Yeah... What did you do?"

"Little trick I picked up from the Venusian Monks," the Doctor replied, grinning. "For space travel sickness but I figured it might work in the same way for this."

"Thanks," Theta replied, but still didn't let go of him.

"Okay to go on?"

Theta nodded. "Let's get this thing and leave."

The Doctor moved forward to the centre of the room. There was a raised platform in the centre and a black hole in the floor just in front of it.

"This is it," the Doctor muttered. "Gimme the Rod."

Theta handed it to him and he stepped forward, struggling to kneel down in front of the hole. His legs were getting stiffer by the minute. He finally got there and inserted it, turning it with its maze of marking to fit into the cavities. Then it was completely in.

There was a massive clunk and suddenly the platform in front of them creaked and began to part. Theta helped the Doctor to his feet as they both moved backwards, watching as a massive black crystal began to rise out of the floor slowly but surely...

It stopped moving, and just sat there immobile.

"How we gonna get that back?" Theta wondered. "Seriously, it's huge."

"That isn't the Eye," the Doctor replied simply, stepping forward. He took the Sash from Theta and placed it around his shoulders. He reached out, pulled some kind of contraption, and the crystal suddenly split vertically in two, to reveal a small sphere about the size of a squash ball held by some sort of electric energy field in the heart of the crystal.

" _That's_ the Eye," the Doctor completed, staring at the sight.

"Let's grab it and go, then," Theta said, striding forward... But the Doctor quickly reached out an arm to prevent him.

"Not quite as simple as that," he said, staring at the Eye. "Here's the plan. As soon as I take the Eye out, the entire planet will start to destabilise in hours, so take it and run back to the others. They'll take it back to the TARDIS, Don will fly her to give it to the creature and then they'll go back to Earth, out of the void. Go with them."

Theta nodded slowly, staring at the tiny ball suspended in the field of energy.

"Ready?" the Doctor asked.

"Wait, one question?"

"What?"

"What'll happen to you when you take the Eye?" Theta asked, still staring at the ball. "The Sash will protect you, right?"

"Probably not," the Doctor admitted. "It'll protect me long enough for me to take the Eye out of the field, but after that... I'll turn into a Neverperson."

"What's a Neverperson?"

"They were once Time Lords, who now live in the Anti-Time Dimension, a place that exists out of time and space. Any Time Lord executed by the Oubliette of Eternity ends up living as a Neverperson. All the power contain in the Eye... When it's removed, it will surge with power and take my presence with it. Once the Eye is stabilised, you can pick it up, take it back to the others and leave before Gallifrey collapses."

Theta nodded. "Okay," he breathed, tearing his gaze away from the Eye to look at his future self. "I get it now."

"Right," the Doctor concluded, taking a breath to strengthen himself for what he was about to do. He slowly outstretched his hand toward the ball, fingers about to brush the energy field... When suddenly he heard and felt a very loud and very painful impact to his jaw, and he blacked out even before he hit the deck.

Theta stood there with his fist outstretched, grimacing at the body of his future self lying unconscious on the floor.

"Oh, that's gonna hurt in 900 years. Sorry, old man, had to be done," Theta muttered to him, stooping to retrieve the Sash from around his older self's neck and putting it on himself, before stepping over the Doctor to stand right in front of the core of the Eye. "Here goes nothing..."

He reached out his hand to the Eye.

* * *

The Doctor woke up, his entire jaw aching. He frowned and sat up with a moan, rubbing the affected area as he opened his eyes. Then he remembered.

"Theta!" he yelled, panicked as he looked around frantically, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the entire room was in low light, the energy field at the centre empty... The squash ball-sized Eye lying on the floor next to the Doctor's legs as if it had been carelessly dropped. It was still smoking.


	25. The Last Hurrah

Outside of the Caldera, Jack, Rose and Sarah had been waiting patiently for the Doctor and Theta. It had been twelve hours since their firned and his younger version had entered that place and now time was really wasting away, now. If they didn't get the Eye back to the creature soon, they wouldn't have any time to sort out how to cure the Doctor. And there had to be a way. There just had to be.

After twelve hours, all three companions were seriously considering the idea that maybe Theta and the Doctor hadn't made it to the Eye. No one was voicing it, but they were all thinking it, sharing glances. But how long could they go on not mentioning it?

So it was a relief when the doors finally opened, and they all simultaneously stood to attention, waiting for Theta and the Doctor's emergence...

The Doctor stumbled out, leaning heavily on the wall and panting. Everyone instantly moved to help him, supporting him as he moved out the Caldera and the doors slid shut. He was near collapsing altogether.

"Did you get it?" Jack asked quickly. The Doctor nodded, digging into his pocket with his functional hand and bringing out a small black ball, holding it out to Jack, who took it. They all collectively smiled.

"Wait, where's Theta?" Sarah asked, looking at the closed door.

"He's not coming," the Doctor breathed.

"He's dead?"

"He asked... what would happen when... I took the Eye... Then he punched me... Took it instead... He was erased..." They didn't need to ask again. "We have to go," he continued. "We've got about f... four hours until Galli... F... Frey collapses..."

"We'll make it," Jack assured him. "How are you feeling?"

"My legs are gonna... gonna go soon," the Doctor gasped, brow furrowed. "It's... getting hard to... to breathe."

"What's the quickest way to get to the TARDIS?" Jack asked urgently.

"Skimmers," the Doctor replied through pants. "Down near the space-p...port."

Jack nodded decisively, giving the Eye to Rose before picking up the Doctor, slinging him over his shoulder. "Right," he said, drawing out his gun and turning to the others. "I'll lead, anyone gets in our way I'll shoot 'em dead. We're getting back to the TARDIS in under twenty minutes."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Shoot them?" she repeated.

"No guilt, they'll be alive again in minutes," Jack pointed out. "And I think I know a thing or two about that."

"Jack," suddenly came a breathy voice from the man hanging over his shoulder.

Jack froze instantly. "Doc?" he asked.

"All I can... Can see is your b... Bum."

"Enjoy the view, normally I'd charge," Jack replied with a grin, then looked at Rose and Sarah. "Let's go."

* * *

They made it to the space-port in ten minutes, running and ducking through the onslaught of both surprised and angry-looking Gallifreyans. The Doctor directed them to what seemed to be a storage room of sorts... Packed with large ships that were shaped like Viking longboats.

"One of these things?" Jack asked, hauling the Doctor off of his shoulder and holding him to help him stand to face them.

"No, two-man... Easier to fly," the Doctor said, pointing to avert their attention from the massive ships to some much smaller ones piled in the corner in a junk heap. Rose and Sarah simultaneously nodded, jogging forward to untangle two from the pile. They looked like three-wheeled kid's scooters without the wheels and a seat attached in the middle big enough for two people to sit on.

"They're weird," Rose commented, frowning slightly as she regarded the scuffed one she'd picked.

"Yeah," the Doctor muttered with a small smile, reaching into his pocket to draw out the sonic. "Earth modelled. Weren't in fashion for... Very long."

"They seem to be out of power," Sarah observed.

"No problem," the Doctor replied, pulling out of Jack's hold to stumble over to them, running his sonic over them both. Instantly they both seemed to surge into power, jumping up to hover off the ground.

Jack moved forward quickly, not wanting to waste any time. He helped the Doctor to sit on one and climbed up behind him, taking control of the handlebars.

"How d'you work it?" Jack asked.

"Like a motorbike," the Doctor replied, pulling a little on the hand-grip to show the skimmer moved forward a little. "Gear shift... Is height control."

"Rose, Sarah, get on yours," Jack said, glancing back at them both.

The two women looked at each other.

"You wanna drive?" Rose wondered with a sheepish smile.

"I'll leave that to you, Rose," Sarah said politely with a laugh, climbing on the back. Rose took a breath and climbed on the front, quickly familiarising herself with the controls.

"Follow us," the Doctor croaked to Sarah and Rose, then lifted the sonic to the doors and pressed down the button. Instantly the doors exploded outwards in a plume of debris, and even just as the loud cries sounded the guards started flooding in...

"Stop!"

"Let's go!" Jack yelled, and off he went, accelerating dramatically towards the brand new hole in the wall with Rose and Sarah in quick pursuit. The guards fired off shots at them, grazing the sides of their skimmers as they flew up towards the skies, trying desperately to get away. The rudimentary skimmers took a few hits, but didn't seem to be affected as they soared up, up and up...

Jack risked a glance back. Rose and Sarah were still hot on their tail, screaming across the sky at what felt like 50 miles per hour with Sarah clinging desperately to Rose, and Rose in turn looking both extremely excited and very out of her depth at the very same moment.

"We're all okay!" Jack yelled to the Doctor as the wind howled past. The Doctor smiled briefly, and then pointed to the right. Without a word Jack turned to follow his direction, checking Rose and Sarah again. They followed their path.

They continued through the sky like metal birds, the wind in their hair and a beautiful view beneath that changed as they passed through the fractures. Rose and Sarah even began to find themselves enjoying it before too long, screaming to the skies in true happiness and liberation. They had both done many strange alien things in their travels with the Doctor, but nothing even close to this. They were flying!

Eventually the Doctor gestured for Jack to start descending. He shifted down and very quickly found himself hurtling towards the ground at quite a deadly speed. He suddenly shrieked in terror and he heard the Doctor laugh, reaching for the brake to pull on it lightly, bringing them to a much slower descent and a very neat landing... Right next to Don, Martha and Luke.

"Hello!" Jack yelled with a happy grin on his face, Rose and Sarah dropping down just in front of them to a slightly less graceful landing than their skimmering counterparts.

Martha and Luke were gazing at them with their jaws agape, but Don was jumping up and down excitedly with a very loony smile on his face.

"Mini skimmers! I haven't seen 'em in  _years!"_ he yelled in delight. "Oh, please let me drive, please..."

"You three... Get on, we've gotta... Go," the Doctor rasped, but he couldn't stop smiling at Don's childlike reaction. "Don on ours... Martha, Luke, on Rose's."

"You got the Eye?" Don asked, as the three hurriedly obeyed, climbing onto the metal bars and holding onto the pilots.

"Yeah!" Rose replied in a happy shout, beaming.

Don grinned. "To the void!" he yelled triumphantly, throwing out his hand to point onwards, before quickly grabbing onto Jack again. Then he paused, and thought about what they were actually doing. "Can these things actually take more than two people?"

"We're gonna... find out," the Doctor breathed, and pulled on the accelerator before Jack and Don had a chance to process what he'd said.

They reached the TARDIS, Don and Jack helping the Doctor inside to sit on the chair beside the console. Instantly he began to direct the crowd to the appropriate controls, gasping instructions to commence a trip back to the void. They had to do this as quickly as possible.

Within seconds the TARDIS begin to churn, creaking and groaning before the dematerialisation column started moving. They were back off into the void.

"Okay..." the Doctor gasped. "Bring it... to a stop... Handbrake, Rose..."

She pulled the handbrake and the TARDIS came to a messy halt, almost sending the Doctor face-planting into the floor if Jack hadn't dived to catch him. The Doctor struggled up, leaning heavily on Jack and trying to just breathe.

"Okay?" Jack asked anxiously.

The Doctor dismissed it with a nod, holding out his hand. "Eye, please."

Rose quickly moved over to him, placing the ball in his hand. The Doctor looked at them all for a moment, taking a few deep breaths.

"Don," he croaked.

"Yeah?" Don asked gently, moving forward.

The Doctor grimaced as he reached into his pocket and drew out the Great Key, holding it out the Don.

Don's eyes widened. "Why the hell do you have that? That's got nothing to do with the Eye..."

"Back up," the Doctor grunted. "Please... Take it. If this... doesn't work... you know what... to do."

Don stared at the Key, then at the Doctor. "I... I can't."

"Please, Don," the Doctor pleaded. "If the... Darkness doesn't... stop consuming... Use it."

"But I can't!"

"What is that?" Martha asked, frowning.

"It's the Great Key," Don croaked. "It powers Gallifrey's De-mat gun... it erases the target from existence..." He swallowed, looking at the Doctor again, suddenly angry. "We're not using it! Not again!"

"Please, Don, please. It's... It's our only... chance."

"How the hell can you stand there and tell me to do this?" Don demanded angrily, almost in tears. "You know what happened last time!"

"Don," the Doctor grunted. "I know... Really, I do... I know... But for the... sake of the... universe... If the Darkness... Incarnate... doesn't s-stop... It's the only... thing to... save... exis-istence..."

"Go to hell!" Don yelled back, shoving the key roughly back into the Doctor's chest.

"I'll use it," Jack said quickly.

"No, you won't!" Don practically screamed at him. "No one, and I mean  _no one_ is using the Key! Not ever! All right?"

"Don, it's... it's not the same as... last time," the Doctor insisted. His left leg had completely gone numb, now. It was only a matter of time until he wouldn't be able to walk. "Just... take it, think... about it. Please."

Don was furious, angry that the Doctor could ask him to do that... But knowing in his mind that it was the best option for everyone. There was a long pause, before Don's eyes connected with the Doctor's, tears about to fall.

"... What if I create the Moment again?" he croaked. "What if it goes wrong? What if it's the end of the Time War all over again? I can't go through that. Not again."

"Please, take the... the key," the Doctor insisted. "If... I hope... you never have to... to use it. But if it... comes to it, you... decide what to... to do with it."

Don swallowed, nervously reached out a hand, and took the Key.

"Thank you," the Doctor breathed.

Don just nodded in reply, turning away to accept a comforting hug and kiss from Rose. The Doctor watched this for a moment, before turning to the TARDIS doors and silently starting off towards them. His left leg was completely paralysed now. It dragged along the floor limply so he had to use his surroundings to get there. He finally made it to the doors and opened them.

" _TIME LORD!"_ the seemingly disembodied voice screeched suddenly, and the entire TARDIS jerked abruptly. The Doctor managed to catch himself one handed on the TARDIS door.

"I... have... your... Eye!" the Doctor yelled through gasps for air, trying desperately to get enough air in his lungs to scream into the blackness. "I've... come... to... give... it... back... to... you!"

" _EYE!"_

"Yeah!" the Doctor shouted back. "It's... yours!"

Suddenly the Doctor saw a black tendril of sorts fly out of the void and grab him around the middle, yanking him out of the TARDIS. He yelped in surprise and found himself hanging in the blackness of nothing, though the TARDIS was protecting him from the null effects as best she could.

" _EYE?"_

"It's... here!" the Doctor yelled. "But... you... have... to... come... back... to... the... void... No... more... consum... ing...!"

" _EYE..."_ was all the creature said, squeezing him a little tighter. He tried to talk but he could barely even breathe. It felt like all the life was draining out of him... Like it was feeding off of him...

"Please..." the Doctor grunted in barely a whisper.

" _... TIME LORD... TINY TIME LORD... UNLIKE OTHERS BEFORE HIM."_

The Doctor couldn't do anything but lay in the creature's tight grip, almost suffocating.

" _TINY TIME LORD..."_ the creature continued, letting go of him slightly.

He relaxed, trying to breathe again. "You'll... stop... consum... ing... other... uni... verses?" he asked breathily.

" _CONSUME NO MORE,"_ the creature confirmed simply.

"Thank... you..." the Doctor replied, and shifted his working arm out of the creature's grip to hold out the tiny ball that had caused so much trouble.

The creature snatched it up.  _"PAIN NO MORE..."_  it boomed.  _"THANK YOU, TINY TIME LORD."_

It went to place him back in the TARDIS, but she had spent so much power on keeping the Doctor safe she was beginning to run out. She began to drop, inch by inch, fading out a little with the concentrated power trying desperately to keep the Doctor alive... But he was slowly beginning to suffocate and become frozen too, unable to exist in the void...

 _'TARDIS...' t_ he Doctor called out in his mind.  _'Save the others, please. Leave me. Take them back to Earth.'_

 _'No!/Always together,'_ she replied simply.

The Doctor didn't even have time to process that the TARDIS had actually replied to him before the creature holding him started up.

" _SAVE TINY TIME LORD!"_ it boomed, and suddenly the Doctor was flying through the blackness back in the direction of the TARDIS. Then he smacked straight into her, knocking him out for the second time in the same day.


	26. Lungbarrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Concerning the way the TARDIS talks - I saw someone write her like that in another story somewhere on Whofic (For shame I can't remember who it was or what the story was, if you know please tell me so I can credit!) and I thought it was just such a good idea. Feels nice and alien and perfect for the TARDIS to me.

_'Doctor!/You're safe,'_ a voice said in the Doctor's head as he rose to consciousness, barely able to open his eyes. When he did, he found himself lying back in a field on Gallifrey. He groaned, trying to get up but both his legs were paralysed now.

_'Stay!/Others looking for you.'_

He resigned and stopped trying to get up, just lying there in a bed of flowers with his eyes closed. ' _You are talking to me, right?'_ the Doctor asked in his head.  _'I mean, I'm not going a little senile? Since when did you start talking?'_

_'Silly!/Just found your frequency.'_

The Doctor smiled, though he quickly realised the left side of his face was paralysed, now. He would've laughed if he could. _'I can't believe you're talking to me. Hello!'_

_'Haha!/Hello, Doctor.'_

_'I'm sorry for bashing you and yelling at you a lot of the time.'_

_'Bastard!/Apology accepted.'_

The Doctor laughed in his head again.  _'You've come a little late though.'_

_'Sad!/I know.'_

_'Doesn't matter,'_ the Doctor continued.  _'Better late than never. Thank you for everything.'_

_'Aww!/You're welcome.'_

_'I never thought when I first stole you that my life would be what it was. It was... So mad... So amazing. I wouldn't have lasted a day without you. I'm... I'm glad we've got this chance to talk before I die.'_

_'Wait!/Who stole who, exactly?'_

He smiled again. _'I love you.'_

_'Love!/Love you, too.'_

_'… Will you be there until the end?'_

_'Yes!/Until the very end, my Time Lord.'_

He felt like crying.  _'Please make sure the others get back to Earth safely.'_

_'Easy!/I will.'_

_'What should I tell them to do with you after I'm gone?'_ he asked.

 _'Think!/Stay in Torchwood,"_ she replied almost instantly.

_'But you might get bored?'_

_'Fun!/I'll watch Jack.'_

_'Oh bloody hell, not you too.'_

_'Sexy!/I've seen him naked.'_

_'Oh, might've guessed,'_  the Doctor replied, rolling his eyes.  _'My TARDIS has a crush on Jack Harkness.'_

_'Typical!/Seen you parading around my corridors naked too.'_

_'Don't I get any privacy?'_ the Doctor wondered vaguely.

_'Duh!/You live inside me... I've seen everything you've got.'_

_'Couldn't you at least look in another room?'_

_'Fun!/You're not so bad either.'_

_'Oh blimey.'_

_'Wait!/Though frankly you could work out a bit, I do have a fully-equipped gym.'_

_'I'm a busy person!'_ the Doctor protested.

_'Scoff!/You spend every evening watching Desperate Housewives on TV munching snaggletreats.'_

_'I preferred it when you didn't talk,'_ the Doctor joked, laughing again.

 _'Stop!/Others are close,'_ the TARDIS suddenly said.

_'Okay. Please don't leave me.'_

_'No!/Never.'_

* * *

"Where the  _hell_ is he?" Jack spat angrily, absolutely frustrated with the situation. They had so little time left to find a cure. But... maybe they'd predicted it wrong. Maybe the illness had sped up in its last few hours. Maybe it was too late for a cure...

"He's close," Don insisted. "He would've landed close to the TARDIS."

Then Rose caught sight of a figure lying in a patch of flowers, unmoving. Her breath instantly caught in her throat and suddenly she found she couldn't speak... Instead, she raised a shaky hand and pointed to the figure, and everyone turned to see what she was seeing. Then within seconds, they were next to the figure.

"Shit, shit," Jack breathed, kneeling down beside the figure and turning it over. It was definitely the Doctor. The black marks were now caking the left side of his face, his previously brown iris now white, a black vein running straight through the middle. Jack quickly opened the other eye – but the black veins hadn't quite reached it yet. As soon as Jack pulled up the eyelid the brown eye darted around and focused on Jack.

"Jack..." the Doctor croaked through the side of his mouth that wasn't paralysed, barely audible at all.

"Don't talk, save your strength," Jack said quickly, pulling up the Doctor's right sleeve to check the progress there. It wasn't past his elbow, yet – but as soon as it was, they'd have minutes. "Okay," Jack said quickly, looking at the others who had gathered in a circle around them, staring at the Doctor in horror. "We've still got an hour or so until he runs out of time. We still have a chance to find a cure if we start moving now."

"Two hours until the planet completely disappears," Don put in. "So we don't have to worry about that at all."

"No... can't... cure..." the Doctor murmured through low, deeply-drawn breaths.

"Shut up!" Jack yelled, suddenly angry at the Doctor for even daring to  _think_ he might die, but he quickly checked himself and levelled his breathing, turning to the crowd. "We need a plan, anything with even a  _little_ bit of hope will do. We've gotta try something... Anything."

He got nothing but silence back from the crowd.

"C'mon!" he yelled, now angry at them for not having anything to say. Again, silence. That awful, long silence. Jack's furious eyes panned around the crowd until he found Don on the end, eyes narrowing.

"Don! You're partly him! Why the hell aren't you doing anything!" Jack demanded to know. "You of all people should know what to do!"

"Leave me alone," Don muttered, looking at the floor and trying desperately not to cry.

Jack stared at him, incredulous, in a pause of utter disbelief. "What? You're just gonna stand there?"

"I can't do anything," Don croaked.

"Can't you at least  _try?"_ Jack yelled.

"Please," suddenly came a quiet, forced voice from the ground. Everyone spun around instantly at the sound of the Doctor's voice. "Please... Please don't... fight. Please... Jack."

Everyone instantly felt insanely guilty. In the midst of argument they'd forgotten the only person that mattered. The Doctor.

"Rose," he said quietly. She was at his side in an instant, taking his hand and placing herself in his vision.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"My left... inside... jacket... pocket," he rasped.

She nodded once, reaching over to dig inside the pocket, fumbling around until she grasped something and pulled it out. It was a sealed high-tech transparent metal tube, filled with...

"Is this...?" Rose began, staring at the sight. "Is this your...?"

"Yeah," he croaked. "I'm sorry... This is... awkward. But it's if... you want... to... to have a... baby."

Rose blinked. "Your baby?"

"Don's won't... work," he wheezed. "Mine will... You don't... have to... use it..." His eyes flickered to her blank face, and he suddenly seemed sad. "Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't... know if you... wanted it."

"No, I'm not rejectin' it, I'm just..." she paused, before raising a small smile. "I'll use it."

A small smile seemed to tug at the end of his afflicted lips, but it was all he managed. And it was right at that exact moment every single one of the companions realised without a shadow of a doubt, that the Doctor was about to die.

Sarah glanced at the others, before kneeling down next to Rose and smiling supportively at the Doctor. "... Is there anything you would like us to do for you before you die?"

The gratitude in the Doctor's eyes alone demonstrated how much he had appreciated that they had finally accepted what was happening. "I want... Lungbarrow."

Sarah frowned, looking at Don. "What's Lungbarrow?"

"The House of Lungbarrow," Don muttered. "If time is fractured here, then there's a chance if we go back to where he lived... His family might be there."

Sarah nodded, then looked back at the Doctor, smiling gently. "We'll do that for you." She looked at Jack. "Jack?"

He swallowed, and nodded. Without a word he moved forward to pick up the Doctor, holding his limp body in his arms.

"Let's go," he said simply.

* * *

Don led them through the fields, to a mountain in the distance, capped with snow. They could see an absolutely massive house sat halfway up the mountain, almost hidden behind a row of silver-leafed trees.

"House of Lungbarrow," Don said simply, and led them up a path towards a pair of grand old oaken doors, carved with some kind of crest of two silver-leafed tree's branches intertwining. As soon as they reached them they opened inwards with a loud, echoing creak to allow entry.

Don looked at them all seriously. "Get ready. Time Lords are egotistical arseholes."

And with that, he stepped inside. They others nervously glanced at each other, before following.

They entered into a huge hall, dark and grand, a long red carpet stretching from the door to a grand staircase around 100 metres away. There were hanging portraits of legendary Prydonian Time Lords along the walls in proud postures, and strange trees climbing the arches of the tunnel. The entire place was very lowly lit, and very quiet

"Lovely place to grow up in," Jack muttered sarcastically as Don took a candle from the wall and held it in front of him. It didn't do much for the light.

"God, this place is creepy. Is this how all Time Lords lived?" Rose wondered.

"This is one of the five founding Oldblood houses," Don explained in a voice barely a whisper as they walked, footsteps lonely in the large, empty corridor. "They're one of the worst of the egotistical arseholes. The Prydonian Chapter is the highest class in Gallifreyan society, the most politically powerful house. There are six chapters of Time Lords, then there are the civilians, called Plebeians. They can't become Time Lords, they're Watch guards or engineers or musicians. Than right under that are the Lowtowners, they're the poor, they live in the foundations of the Capitol and they get hidden away by the elite. Then you have the outsiders, Shobogan, who reject technology and live outside of the citadel hunting for and growing food. For the most part that's their decision, but I heard stories of some of them returning and being tortured and executed. Oh yeah, Time Lords loved torture, too."

Everyone else exchanged glances, and Don looked back at them.

"As I told you, arseholes. Loomlings, or Time-Tots, are the children of Gallifrey, and you can choose what your child is like with a genetic template. So all the Time Lords did was create loomlings with pompous arrogant defects, ignoring the poor and believing themselves to be gods. There were restrictions to the amount of Cousins in a House, too. Exceeding that limit meant the House being erased from existence. The Doctor was born quite literally at the top of society. He was expected to grow up to be the Lord President. He rejected it all and turned renegade, and was disinherited by his House and banished for it."

"I'm not surprised he ran away," Rose admitted, looking around her nervously. "This sounds like a horrible place to live."

Don laughed. "Horrible society, but a great view."

"Halt!" a voice suddenly yelled from in front of them in the darkness. Don frantically gestured for the others to hide as the person moved forward... "Who goes there?"

"Theta!" Don yelled back, holding the candle up to try and see who it was.

"Theta? Who... Oh! Worm-hole," the voice spat as the all too familiar face came into the light, sneering. "Yeah, that's right, Worm-hole. Little crying Worm-hole, House's favourite but thick as Staazula. Can't even sleep without waking up crying..."

"Get out of my way, Almund."

"Make me," Almund replied, spitting in Don's face.

"I said get out of the way, Almund."

"Gonna go  _crying_  to Mummy, huh? Or maybe Innocet will come along and save your ass again!" Almund shoved Don roughly.

Watching from the darkness, the others knew if Don became angry, he might become uncontrollable... "... Don't do that," Don grated lowly.

"Do what? This?" Almund wondered with his familiar sneer, shoving Don again.

"I'm warning you, Almund..."

"Stupid little Worm-hole, thinks he's tough," Almund mocked. "See you've regenerated, still got your belly button, Worm-hole?" He shoved him again.

Don raised his gaze to look at the Doctor's cousin, raised a fist, and slammed it straight into Almund's face. The cousin dropped to the floor like a stone, out for the count.

"Wow, that felt satisfying," Don mused, staring at the sight.

"Don?" Rose asked tentatively, and he turned to grin at her.

"Let's go!" he said happily, then stepped over the body of Almund and carried on down the hall. The others quickly joined him, nervously glancing between each other.

"Umm... Don?" Martha wondered.

"What?" Don asked cheerily.

"Who was that?"

"Oh, Almund? That was one of the Doctor's cousins," Don replied happily. "Trust me, that's been building. Staazula."

"Theta!" a voice suddenly gasped from ahead of them again. "Do not use such foul language against your cousins!"

Suddenly Don froze as though time stood still. Maybe it had, just for a moment – because he recognised that voice.

"... Mother?" he croaked.

The woman stepped forward into the light, and it confirmed it was her. She frowned, gazing at him for a moment. "You are not my son...?"

Jack took that as a cue to step forward, still holding the Doctor's limp body in both arms. The woman's eyes dropped to the body, and instantly she gasped.

"Theta?" she squeaked, moving forward as Jack laid the Doctor down on the carpet. "Oh my poor boy," she whispered, setting down the candle to kneel beside the Doctor. "What have you done to yourself?"

The Doctor's eyes opened – just a crack. "Mo... ther?" he whispered through strained gasps for air.

"You silly boy," the woman reprimanded, but she was smiling through the tears. "Your father will be furious."

"Mo... ther..." he whispered, tears sliding down his face. "I... n-never... said... I nev... never... th-thought..."

"Do not fuss over those futilities, now," she interrupted. "Of course I know you love me."

He smiled slightly, but it was fleeting.

She took his hand, and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "I suppose I was expecting this moment, but I had hoped not so soon," she said quietly.

"Y-You... kn-know?" the Doctor wondered quietly.

She nodded, wiping at a stray tear. "Your father, Quences and I did our best to protect you when you were young, but we could not do anything to prevent what has already been written. I know what happens now. And I also know I am but an echo of what has been, but... I count myself truly blessed to see you now."

"Is... Is Ir... ving... here?" he asked.

"I do not believe he is in this time fracture," she replied. "Bored of me, Theta?"

He laughed, though through his dying lungs and throat damage it sounded more like a wheeze. "Never. I've... missed you so... much. More than... anyone."

"Well, that makes a change," she replied, laughing.

"I... di-didn't..." He paused to take a breath, his brow furrowing. "I di-didn't... mean... it. I... s-swear, Mo...ther."

She sighed, resting her hand on the side of his face, thumb tracing over the black veins beneath the skin of his face. "I know. I am so proud of you, for everything you have done. You have grown so much. Look at all these friends you have. You have touched so many hearts, Theta." She paused, then laughed. "Silly me, you have never stuck to a name very long. What name are you using now?"

"The... D-Doc... tor."

"Very apt," she laughed, before looking up at the crowd. "Thank you for bringing him to me."

They all just nodded, before she looked down at her son again, leaning forward and kissing his forehead.

"Good bye, my son."

"Mo... ther..." the Doctor gasped quickly, tears sliding down his face.

"Do not be picky, now. Be glad that we had this time together."

The Doctor nodded, gasping through his tears as she brushed back his hair from his forehead. She finally looked up at the gathered group, and smiled weakly.

"Please give him a proper Gallifreyan funeral."

They nodded in sync again as she got up, finally letting go of the Doctor's hand and setting it down on his chest. Then their ears popped, and she completely disappeared.

Everyone fell into silence, staring at the floor and trying not to get emotional. It was only when Jack knelt down to pick up the Doctor again did anyone feel inclined to move a muscle.

"... TARDIS," Don supposed quietly. Everyone nodded back, and turned back to walk down the dark corridor to the grand oak front doors. They passed through, and they creaked closed behind them.

Then Don suddenly froze in mid-step with a cry of, "oh bloody hell!" the others almost walking into the back of him. He suddenly spun around with his finger in the air, an absolutely massive grin on his face. "I forgot! The Hermit!"

"What?" Sarah asked quickly.

"The Hermit, he might know what to do!"

Everyone stared at him, absolutely shocked and delighted at this sudden outburst.

"Where is he?" Jack asked urgently.

"Not far, up the mountain path!" Don said quickly, still grinning. "Oh bloody hell I hope he still lives there in the time fracture."

Jack quickly checked the Doctor. The Time Lord was in the last stages, now. His eyes were both covered in the black marks. His chest was rising and falling erratically, the disease having taken his right arm and was now about to kill his second lung before taking his right heart. Ten minutes maximum. But they were all determined to get there.


	27. The Last Breath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of swearing. But I couldn't see it happening any other way.

It had started snowing as they moved up the mountain trail to the Hermit's hut. They could see the tiny wooden hut perched in amongst the trees, smoke coming out of the chimney. Jack's arms were beginning to ache from holding the Doctor's limp body but he wasn't about to stop for a rest now. He had only stopped to wrap the Doctor in his coat to try and keep him warm even though the Doctor was barely moving, now.

No one was talking. No one knew what to say. If this Hermit person couldn't help them... They simply couldn't think about it.

Their ears popped as they moved closer to the house, as Jack felt something collide with his leg and he looked down in surprise to see a boy sprawled out in the snow.

"Oh, sorry kid," Jack said quickly. "You all right?"

The boy took one look at him, seemingly scared. "S-sorry," he mumbled, clambering to his feet and running off through the time fracture, disappearing on contact.

Jack looked at the others, smiling as best he could. "That's the fifth time I've collided with someone through a time fracture today."

They all just smiled, and carried on up to the snowy mountain. The snow was getting heavier, now.

Finally they reached the hut, and Don knocked on the door. Within moments it swung inwards to reveal an old, grey-haired man dressed in a long, tattered robe. The warmth coming from the hut from the fire was inviting to their freezing cold bodies.

He registered them, and smiled sadly. "Please, come in, you must be cold," he said, and stepped aside.

With a glance between them the others entered into the warmth of the hut and the Hermit closed the door behind him. They were invited to sit down around a small wooden table, but there weren't enough chairs for them all.

The Hermit looked at Jack, then at the Doctor in his arms. "Lay him here," he said simply, gesturing to the only bed in the hut. Jack did so, a little apprehensive, but the Hermit seemed to radiate a sense of comfort around him.

Jack drew back, looking at the Doctor for a moment before turning back to the others. Don opened his mouth to talk, but the Hermit got there first.

"Rose, Don, Jack, Sarah and Martha," the Hermit greeted with a smile.

They all frowned. "You know us?" Rose asked.

The Hermit nodded. "I have waited long for this moment."

"How do you...?" Martha began, but Don quickly cut her off, gesturing forward Jack who was still holding the Doctor.

"Can you help him?" Don asked anxiously.

The Hermit just looked at the Doctor sadly. "You come here looking for hope to resist the inevitable. There is nothing I can do."

"No," Don whispered. His eyes were welling up with tears. Then he was suddenly very angry. "You didn't even look! You have to help him!"

The Hermit didn't respond quickly. He took a moment to take in Don's words, then looked at the man himself. "You feel guilty, my boy."

"Of course I do! This is all my fault..." Don croaked. "All mine. He's dying because of me. This isn't fair. I would rather die than live knowing I did this."

Rose looked at him, confused. "... How can this be your fault?"

Don looked at her, sniffing. "... I'm sorry," was all he said.

"Whoa, wait a minute," Jack interrupted, staring at Don in disbelief. "Are you saying you did this to him?"

"Yes," Don muttered weakly.

"What is it?" Jack yelled, hand on his gun... "Is this a poison? What the hell have you done to him?"

"It's not a poison," Don muttered.

"Fucking fix him!" Jack screamed in his face.

Don suddenly looked up, angry. "All right! You want me to fix him?" He grabbed Jack's gun from its holster and placed it firmly in the ex-Time Agent's grip, and lifted Jack's arm so the gun was pointing straight at his head. "Pull the trigger. Come on!"

Jack stood there, utterly paralysed, completely confused with his gun pointing at Don's head.

"Do it then!" Don demanded. "What are you waiting for?"

Jack dropped the gun. "What are you...?"

"Haven't you stupid apes figured it out yet?" Don yelled, tears in his eyes. "It's me! It was always me! He's dying because I'm living! All you have to do to fix him is kill me! So do it, then! I'm not running!"

Everyone just stood there, completely speechless...

"Come on, then!" Don demanded, beckoning them. "Don't feel guilty! I mean nothing, I might look like him but I'm not even worth a quarter of him! Just kill me and all your troubles will go away!"

"Don..." Rose whispered, tears in her eyes as she reached out a hand...

He batted it away. "Rose, all of you," he looked at the rest of them, crying again. "You love him. And right now you're thinking, what if Don did die? What is his life over the Doctor's? And I'll tell you. It would mean  _nothing_ if I died. My life is  _nothing_ over his. And I know that. I can't live knowing I killed him. So I'm begging you. I'm done pretending like everything's okay. Kill me, let him live. Because if you don't, I will."

The Hermit suddenly interrupted, placing his hand on the gun and pushing it down back to Jack's side. "Please, no guns in my house."

There was a long pause.

"Did he know this?" Martha asked quietly, glancing at the Doctor lying there on the table motionless.

"Yeah," Don replied, sniffing.

"When your brain ripped open in quarantine his second heart started again..." Rose realised.

"It was why I was so sick on the parallel world to begin with," Don whispered. "I was weak and he was strong... Then when he got those cuts it triggered a reversal... now I'm sucking the life out of him. I'm getting stronger and he's getting weaker. All his cells are dying. He won't be able to regenerate because there'll be no cells left to renew."

"... But he fixed you," Sarah muttered. "He fixed you knowing it would kill him."

"And now he's dying," Don said, dropping down into a chair with his head in his hands. "And it's all my fault."

Rose dropped down beside him, taking his hand. "This isn't your fault. It's just nature. Besides, if he wanted to live he would've left you to die."

"But he wouldn't have, would he," Don blurted out, now gasping between tears. "Cos he's so fucking  _beautiful_  and so fucking  _perfect_  and so _fucking unselfish_... Bastard. Fucking bastard! What the  _fuck_  gives him the right to do this? How can he just put this all on me? Whatthe  _hell_  am I compared to him? Nobody even wants me, nobody  _ever_ wanted me! Even the woman I've loved since I was born only loves me out of guilt! I'm not him; I'm just a guy who looks like him trying constantly to  _be_  him. I was born in his shadow and I'm gonna die in his shadow and now he's stepping all over me with his fucking altruism, fucking... shitty... fucking bastard! You all resent me for it, you resent that I'm living while he's dying, and I know, I should be the one dying, not him. But I can't even do  _that,_ can I? Because 'Oh, Don, the Doctor's giving his life for you maybe you should appreciate it, you're so selfish!'... Yeah, well, fuck you," he sobbed. "Fuck all of you. I hate this. I hate him. I hate myself. I wish I died in that accident."

Rose stared at him, almost crying too. "Don't say that," she whispered.

"Get lost," Don spat, all courtesy long gone out of the window. "You're all thinking it. Don't try and deny it."

There was a long pause. Nobody knew what to say.

"I... wonder if perhaps such a sacrifice by a friend should not be faced with such anger?" the Hermit wondered.

"You don't understand," Don sobbed, wiping at his eyes.

"Perhaps I do not," the Hermit supposed. "Or perhaps I understand more than you could ever imagine. Though I do believe, a life given so willingly in chance that another life might go on is never a selfish act, but rather an act of selfless love."

There was another long pause.

"... How did you know our names?" Rose asked the Hermit again, breaking the ensuing silence.

"Did the Doctor never look at the data file given to him?" the Hermit wondered.

The companions looked at each other, then shook their heads.

The Hermit smiled slightly. "I am steeped in legends, myth, folklore, fairytale and prophecy. There is so much infinite complexity to the life of the Doctor, more than perhaps even he realises. I could explain, but that is time he does not have..." The Hermit looked at the Doctor laid there. "Please, such a beautiful being should not be alone now."

He stepped back, and gestured to the Doctor. All companions simultaneously realised with alarm that he'd stopped breathing. They ran to him, grasping at his hands, his arms, his hair, cupping his chin... Wherever they could hold him to seem as though they were giving comfort, even though they knew he couldn't feel them touching him. His once deep brown eyes were now white with black veins running through them. No part of him was moving in the slightest. He was surviving on his respiratory bypass, now. It was only a matter of minutes. Martha kept her hand on his chest, feeling for his right heart.

_Thud-thud. Thud-thud._

"He's still with us for the moment," Martha announced quietly, looking at them all. "If we're gonna say anything, it's now."

Jack took that as a cue. He reached up to cup the Doctor's cheek, running his thumb over his lips and placing himself in the Doctor's vision. "Doc, dunno if you can see or hear me... But thanks. I mean, if I hadn't met you, I'd still be a conman probably, stuck in my own little world. You've broadened my horizons. It's thanks to you I managed to get Torchwood, thanks to you I found Ianto. I owe so much to you. I'm sorry I kept being so angry at you for this... I just love you so much. But I've accepted it now. I... I'm gonna keep on living my life as fully as I can, until the very end, however many trillions of years that'll be. Cos you're so inspiring... And I... I don't want to disappoint you. I'll always... I'll just... I'll live for you... And..."

He suddenly stopped talking and tried to swallow back his tears, but they were coming too thick and fast to be stopped. So he just gave up trying to talk, and simply leant forward to kiss the Time Lord gently. Then he drew back, and stepped away.

_Thud-thud. Thud-thud._

Sarah took her position next, Luke next to her. She placed herself in his vision, and smiled weakly through a face that just wanted to drop and cry. "Never thought you'd be the first to go," she said, snorting with laughter. "Seeing your Fourth self... You know, all teeth and curls... Seeing him exactly how you were back then... You just seemed so eternal. But that would've been silly to think that you'd last forever, I know that. But here I am, all old, and now I'm watching you die... Doesn't feel right. But I think... I hope... You've found your peace finally. I don't think the universe is ever going to forget you. I'm privileged to have even spoken to you."

_Thud-thud. Thud-thud._

Martha leant forward next, still resting her hand on his chest. "Doctor... Us all being here I think proves how much you mean to us all. I know it was probably tough for you at times, and maybe I handled some things wrongly... But... I think you know that I'm pregnant already. Normally I'd be scared of what's about to come, but I'm not now, you've shown me I can handle anything. Thank you. I'm always gonna try my best and be positive... I'll carry on. Like you'd want. Good-bye."

She kissed him too.

_Thud-thud. Thud-thud._

"Doctor..." Rose began tentatively, already with tear tracks down her face. "... God, I dunno what to say!" she laughed through her tears. "It's the beach all over again. I thought that was the end of my world then, and it probably was for a bit... And I know... with your meta-crisis... I was so heartless; I did a lot of things wrong... But now we've got a baby, your baby... I'll raise it as best I can, yeah? And like everyone else says, I'm gonna live my life, my silly little human life, because that's so you and what you'd want. But I... I'm never gonna be able to run again without thinking about you. I'm not gonna say I love you, because I did for a very long time, but you gave me your meta-crisis and I love him, now. And maybe it's not totally what I thought my life would be like now when I was working in Henrik's, but it's so much better than that. It's more than I could've dreamed... and it's all thanks to you. Thank you. Good-bye."

_Thud-thud. Thud-thud._

Everyone looked at Don, still sat in that chair, crying. It wasn't until Rose moved forward to take his hand did he get up and swallow back his tears, moving forward to the Doctor's body. There was a long pause as Don stared at him, then closed his eyes, then began to speak.

"Doctor..." he croaked. "I'm not gonna pretend this is easy. What you're doing for me... It'll take a while to accept, I think you know that already. But before I just thought you were being... Not selfish... That's not the word. Can't find the word. But now I'm realising the responsibility you're giving to me. Maybe I  _am_  the by-product of your hand and a bit of timey-wimey, maybe my brain isn't quite right, but I'm my own man, I'm not gonna keep being your shadow. You've trusted me with Rose, with your child. Like Rose said, we'll raise him... or her... as best we can. Can't guarantee they'll be totally normal... I mean, they're a sperm donation from a dead alien, its dad is screwed up in the head and has a dual personality and their Mum has lived in two different Universes." He thought about this for a moment. "Hmm... Teenage years will be rough. Anyway... guess that's all I wanted to say, really. Except, good-bye. If there is actually an afterlife I hope you have a ball."

He nodded with approval, and stepped back to Rose. She simply reached up and kissed him with all the love and passion she could muster, holding him tightly. Eventually he began to relent, and kissed her in return. They'd get there.

Martha watched the Doctor's face, her hand still on his chest.

_Thud-thud. Thud-thud._ _Thud-thud... Thud-thud. Thud - Thud... Thud..._

She waited. But she already knew there wasn't going to be another thud. It was as though he had waited for Don.

"He's gone," she whispered.


	28. One Day...

They took his body back to the TARDIS, lying it carefully down on the grating as Don started programming. The planet was destabilising more and more as they left, and a few minutes after they had left it disappeared completely.

It was a flawless trip back through the void, the creature even helping them back. They'd never even found a name for it. Don used the TARDIS to mend the gap between the Universes as they passed through, completely sealing off his and Rose's passage back to the parallel world forever.

They materialised in Torchwood. Ianto and Mickey were ready and waiting, broad smiles on their faces that the Darkness had gone. But the moment Sarah stepped out of the TARDIS, they knew something was wrong. It was only when Jack stepped out carrying the motionless body of the Doctor did they realise what it was.

No one said a word. What was there to say? Jack simply took the Doctor's body down to the morgue to freeze it in cryogenic storage ready for the funeral they would have to prepare. Everyone gathered to watch the drawer slide in, and lock. It was drawer number ten.

Once it was done, everyone followed Jack back up to the conference room. Ianto didn't even have to ask anyone if they wanted tea and coffee, so he just fetched it and placed it in the middle of the table that everyone was staring silently at.

"... What do we do for a Gallifreyan funeral?" Martha finally broke the silence, looking at Don.

"We can't do it normally," Don muttered. "But we can do a funeral pyre. Dress him in white. White is death. Big ceremony. Lots of flowers. A song."

Jack just nodded, looking at the recently returned Gwen. "Gwen, can you find a location. Somewhere remote. Ianto, logistics. Mickey, resources."

They all just nodded, and got up to do their job without protest.

The room sank back into silence once more. Conversation over. Such as it was.

"I can't believe he's dead," was all Jack croaked.

Everyone stayed silent, sniffing slightly. It was anyone's bet who was going to cry first. Then suddenly Don grabbed for Rose's hand and his eyes widened.

"Rose," he warned.

"What?"

He frowned, gripping her hand tighter. "I... thi'am... fi..." he slurred and stumbled over his words, and Rose's eyes widened.

"Oh god, clear a space on the floor!" she said quickly to the others, grabbing hold of Don as his eyes rolled back in his skull as he cried out wordlessly.

Jack quickly moved forward, pulling off his coat and making it into a pillow in the clear space of the conference room. Quickly he was manoeuvred down to lie on the floor, and very soon after the meta-crisis began to posture and then spasm, jerking around on the floor as Rose desperately tried to ensure he didn't hit anything. It went on for around two minutes until he finally stopped. When it was over he just laid there, silent.

"Don, can you hear me?" Martha asked quickly, moving in to help. "Say hello if you can hear me."

His mouth moved, but no sound seemed to come out, his eyes still rolled back in his skull and staring at nothing.

"Say hello, Don. Count to ten, come on. Count to ten."

He didn't reply.

"Count to ten," Martha encouraged. "Come on, Don. Count to ten."

"I'll get some water," Sarah said quickly, moving out of the conference room.

"Don, talk to me," Jack said. "Say my name."

Don didn't reply.

"Don, please," Rose said gently, squeezing his hand.

He stayed silent, but his head moved, his eyes looking around.

"Hello," Martha said gently, smiling. "Don? Say my name. Just need to know you're with us."

He didn't reply, just gazing at them all, disorientated.

"God, I thought this was over," Rose muttered, brushing back his hair.

"Don? Come on, give us a sentence," Jack encouraged him.

He stayed silent, just looking around. Sarah came back with some water and a straw.

"Is this normal after the accident?" Martha asked Rose quickly as Jack continued trying to get Don to talk.

"At the start, yeah... But then they stopped."

"Does he have any medication?"

"No, we ran out and realised he'd stopped fittin' altogether."

"Don," Jack was still saying. "Gimme one word. Come on. What's my name?"

He kept quiet.

"Oh come on, you can't forget my name, I'm unforgettable," Jack joked.

Don laughed quietly, and Jack smiled.

"Oh yeah, you heard that then," he said. "Come on, you back with us?"

"... I'm okay," Don finally muttered, blinking a few times.

"Had us worried there," Jack said seriously. For a moment he had wondered whether the Doctor dying had really been worth it, if the meta-crisis was going to die... "Want some water?"

"Yeah..." He gratefully took the water in an unsteady hand and drank through the straw. Jack helped him support the glass.

"I thought you were over that," Rose said gently, stroking his face and smiling.

"S-sorry," he murmured in reply, smiling a little.

"It's okay," she replied, kissing him supportively before looking up at Martha. "Can you give him a brain scan or somethin'?" she asked anxiously.

Martha nodded. "I will."

* * *

"Rose, I'm sorry," Don muttered an hour later, sitting on the examination table waiting for the brain scan results.

Rose looked at him, raising her eyebrow. "Don't be an idiot, havin' a seizure wasn't exactly your fault."

"I didn't mean that," Don replied quietly. "I think... Well I know, I said some bad things in the hut. I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Rose replied simply, kissing him again. "You were just angry. Besides, we've gotta get over it... because we're havin' a baby," she said, holding up the tube the Doctor had given her, smiling weakly.

Don looked at it, then looked at the floor. "... Yeah," he muttered.

Rose looked at him sadly, pocketing the tube and taking his hand. "I know," she said simply. "Let's just... have the funeral and try and move on, yeah? I know that's such an easy thing to say but... What else can we do?"

Don just looked at her, not answering. Before the silence became too long Martha appeared with a scan, her expression set.

"Oh God," Rose croaked at her expression. "Is he...?"

"It's fine," Martha assured them both. "But... Your scan showed some lingering damage. Your brain isn't healed fully... It is mostly, the Doctor did a very good job, but I'm not sure if it's going to heal completely. I think you may be epileptic for the rest of your life."

Then there was a complete silence, Don staring at her.

"It's fine, it's possible to control with medication," Martha continued. "We just have to find you the right one."

There was another long pause as Don stared at her. Then suddenly he screamed with joy, jumping onto his feet and punching the air. "YES!" he whooped.

"... What?" Martha asked, startled.

"This is brilliant!" he yelled happily. "Oh this is  _amazing!"_

"Umm..." Rose muttered, glancing at Martha, who just shrugged.

"Don't you see?" Don yelled as he grabbed Rose and shook her by the shoulders excitedly, beaming from ear-to-ear. "I have epilepsy! This is brilliant!"

"... You've lost me," Rose said quietly.

"He's not dead!" Don shouted, laughing. "He can't die! Because I'm not completely healthy! Don't you see?"

"No..."

Don pulled back, trying to compose himself. "I was draining out his life force, yes? When he got sick, I got better. And when I started getting better, he got worse, right? But he is not going to die unless I'm completely healthy. And I'm not, see? I can  _never_ be completely 100 percent healthy, because I'm epileptic with brain damage. He is not dead and he is not gonna die." He turned to Martha, staring at her with glee. "This is the get-out! We can both live!"

"Oh my God," Martha whispered in realisation, hand over her mouth as Don accelerated off at 100 miles per hour.

"Stop the funeral!" Don yelled, running out into the Hub. "Someone get a stethoscope and meet me in the morgue!"

"What?" Jack wondered distractedly, looking up from his desk.

"Don!" Rose yelped, trying to run after him. "But his heart stopped beatin'!"

"Did it, Rose?" Don demanded to know, spinning around and running backwards instead. "Did it?" He spun around again and practically threw himself down the steps to the morgue.

When everyone else got there he was already pulling out the drawer where the Doctor's body lay, absolutely motionless and still covered in the black marks. He reached up to the Doctor's neck, checking for a pulse.

"C'mon, please," he urged, looking up at Martha. "Stethoscope!"

"What the hell is going on?" Jack asked, severely confused as Martha handed Don the stethoscope from around her neck.

Don quickly cut off any reply anyone might have had. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Don urged, placing the stethoscope end on the Doctor's chest, listening.

"Don, what..."

"Shut up!" Don urged, listening hard. Then he suddenly shrieked in delight and pulled the stethoscope out of his ears, lightly slapping the Doctor's face.

"Doctor, wake up! C'mon, you know you wanna!"

"Is he alive?" Sarah practically squeaked.

"Doctor! Open your eyes!"

He didn't move a muscle. Then Don slowly realised, drawing back to look at the Doctor's body.

"What is it?" Jack insisted to know, becoming more and more annoyed by the minute that he wasn't getting any form of answer. "Is he alive or not?"

"Yeah, he's alive," Don said slowly. "But... Only just."

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked.

"I'm epileptic with brain damage... So that's enough for me to be permanently not quite 100 percent healthy," Don explained. "And the effect on the Doctor is that he cannot actually die while I'm like this. But he is only just alive, and he's lingering in this state, completely comatose, not quite dead but barely alive."

Everyone stared at him, having a moment to take that in. "You mean... He'll be like that forever?" Martha asked quietly.

"Only until I die, then he'll wake up and heal," Don replied.

"... Then what do we do with him?" Rose asked. "We can't give him a funeral, he's not really dead."

"If any hostile alien life gets a whiff of this, they will come for his body and use him," Don said quietly. "He's vulnerable, completely comatose... and he's gonna stay like that for a very long time. We have to guard his body for as long as he's asleep, lock him up, protect him... And make everyone think he's dead."

"Then what do we do?" Jack asked.

Don thought for a moment. "We'll do a pretend funeral. Let everyone see it. The whole she-bang. Start a rumour he's died and make the funeral known to have happened universally. As far as everyone else knows, he's dead. Keep him in cryo until I die."

Everyone nodded, staring at the Doctor's impassive face. By the time Don was dead a few of them might have died. Some of them would probably never talk to him again, certainly not Don. But at least the Doctor wasn't dead... One day he'd wake up again.

"Okay," Don breathed, looking at Rose and offering a small smile. "We've got a life to live and a baby to raise."

She just nodded, finally genuinely smiling.

"But when I die," Don started, pointing at the Doctor but staring at Jack. "You wake him up."

Jack nodded. "I will," he replied, before he grasped the handle of the cryo-chamber, the others catching what could be their last glimpse of the Time Lord for the rest of their life, and he pushed the Doctor back inside. He closed the door, and it locked.


	29. Reborn

"He's not waking up..." a voice said from the distance in the Doctor's mind.

"Give him a bit, he needs to adjust," replied a familiar voice... Was that Jack?

"You were right, he does look just like Don did. Except for all those black marks..."

"They'll clear up. Look, you'd better get out of here, we don't wanna confuse him too much."

"Okay, good luck, Jack." There were footsteps that moved across the room followed by the quiet closing of a door.

"Hey, Doc," Jack's voice said again. "Fancy talking?"

The Doctor groaned and shifted slightly... there was feeling in his right arm but he couldn't seem to move much else. Then slowly his sight began to come back in his right eye and he met with the concerned face of Jack looking down at him.

"Hello!" Jack said, grinning. "Oh, there's one of those beautiful browns. The black marks are disappearing slowly, Doc."

Slowly the Doctor began to get some feeling back into the right side of his jaw. Then he could partially feel his lips. He opened his mouth to try and get a sense of what moving them felt like, and even as he did his entire jaw and moved with it. He tried to make a noise and all that seemed to come out was some kind of strangled cry.

"Take it easy," Jack said gently. "You'll get there."

The vision was back in his left eye, now, and his neck was less stiff. He blinked to adjust, his eyes feeling very dry.

"J... Jack," he said, and Jack grinned.

"Hello!" he said again. "How you feeling?"

"Cold..."

"No problem," Jack replied simply, diving out of view and returning with a blanket, laying it over the Doctor. "Better?"

"Yeah... Thanks," the Doctor replied with a wheeze. He wiggled his toes on his right foot, then moved his ankle, then bent his knee. Then suddenly he felt compelled to gulp down some air and he started breathing rapidly, never having appreciated it more than now.

"D'you want a drink?" Jack asked him gently.

The Doctor nodded, grunting slightly. Jack scurried off, and when he returned he found the Doctor sitting up on the bed, flexing his fingers. The black marks were almost completely gone. He looked up on Jack's entry.

"Got some tea," Jack said, setting it down on the side table.

The Doctor nodded, if a little bit disjointedly, lowering his fingers and gazing around the room. "Where am I?"

Jack quickly realised how confused the Doctor must've been. He took a seat next to him, taking his hand in reassurance. "You're not dead, you're in Torchwood. My Torchwood. We're in one of the medical rooms."

"I died," the Doctor realised. Then he quickly reached up to run a hand down his face and through his hair just to check...

"You haven't regenerated," Jack replied simply. "You didn't die."

"But I..." the Doctor frowned, then stopped talking.

Jack had never seen him so confused. "I'll explain everything, but first I gotta make sure you're okay. When you're ready we'll go to the Medbay."

The Doctor didn't make any move to get up, sitting there huddled in a blanket constantly flexing his fingers.

"What do you remember?" Jack wondered.

The Doctor's brow furrowed, thinking hard. "Umm... You were carrying me... We were going to the Hermit. Don was angry and... Everyone was talking to me."

Jack's eyes widened in alarm... "Err, did you hear what we said?"

"I don't remember much," the Doctor admitted, and Jack internally breathed a sigh of relief. "But don't worry, Jack, I love you too," the Time Lord continued, grinning.

Jack blushed a deep red. The Doctor smiled, and changed the subject. "What happened?"

"Medbay, first," Jack said, salvaging some dignity.

* * *

Torchwood was strangely dark and empty, the Doctor noticed as they went through to the medical bay. After a scan it revealed the Doctor was looking quite healthy. The black marks had almost completely gone, but the scars on his back would probably scar his current body for life.

"So, would you care to explain what's going on?" the Doctor asked when it was all done. "It seems kind of empty here."

"Didn't used to be like that," Jack explained. "But everyone will be back in a few hours for the funeral."

"Funeral?" the Doctor repeated.

"Don died yesterday," Jack said quietly.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "What?" he gasped. "How?"

Jack laughed at him, heightening the Doctor's confusion even more. "Old age," he replied.

The Doctor blinked. "What?"

"You've been asleep for fifty-one years, it's the year 2061," Jack said, as if it was perfectly normal. He caught the Doctor's expression and grinned. "Don worked it out. He was epileptic and he still had some brain damage, and it was keeping you alive, but just in a coma. We had a massive funeral to protect you, seriously, loads of aliens came to pay their respects to you. But we put you in cryo and kept you there until Don died. He was 88-years-old, he died in his sleep. So did Rose."

The Doctor couldn't really process this. "... Fifty-one... Don... Rose is dead?"

Jack nodded. "She died a few years ago. I think Don kinda lost his way without her, but he had the family to keep him company."

"Family," the Doctor repeated.

"Your one, his name was Tom. We did it all in a Petri dish and Rose carried him. He was killed in a crash two years ago with his wife. We thought he'd regenerate but I don't think he really understood how, and Don got to him too late. It was really unexpected. But he had a daughter."

"I'm a grandfather," the Doctor realised.

"Yeah, a little girl... Well she's not so little anymore – 15 now. She's been waiting all her life to meet you."

The Doctor suddenly lost the ability to breathe.

"I've been looking after her and Don since Tom and his wife died. She's a good kid."

"And who was that voice earlier?" the Doctor asked.

"That was Aiden, Mickey and Martha's son. Just turned 50. They've got a daughter too called Josie. Aiden and Tom were good friends since they grew up together, and they were both working for Torchwood. Mickey and Martha are still alive, so's Ianto, and Luke of course, but everyone else has died."

Jack stopped talking, just to see how the Doctor was taking all this. He was just staring at the wall.

"You wanna come to the funeral tonight?" Jack wondered.

The Doctor nodded silently. "... Is the TARDIS still here?"

"Yep, she's fine. Don and Rose used to take her out on trips for Tom, but they got too old so she's been sitting in Torchwood for a few years powered down."

He stopped talking again. There was a little moment of silence. Jack couldn't blame him. It was quite a lot to take in.

"You hungry?" Jack asked.

The Doctor nodded.

"C'mon, let's eat then get dressed up and leave."

* * *

The Doctor followed Jack like an obedient child as they made their way to the graveyard where the funeral was taking place, dressed in black tie. The Doctor very quickly realised that he'd never actually been to Earth in the year 2061 before, so he had no idea what was going on. All he could see was that Cardiff 2061 looked almost exactly the same as Cardiff 2010. Except for the clothes. People were wearing some extremely very revealing outfits.

"What's happening on Earth now?" the Doctor asked.

"Worrying about food, worrying about power, worrying about global warming, everyone's in debt... Same old, really. Oh, Olympics are going on in Barcelona this year... Cricket's an Olympic sport."

"About time," the Doctor replied with a sniff.

"Oh, the Amazon's ecosystem has gone and turned into a desert too. And we're all using the Euro."

"I thought that collapsed in 2012?" the Doctor frowned.

"So did I," Jack replied simply as they reached the graveyard gate, and made their way to a gathering by a grave where people where milling. Then someone caught sight of the Doctor heading towards them, and everyone turned.

Instantly the Doctor felt like the spotlight was on him. As they reached the grave everyone had gone completely quiet.

"Hello!" the Doctor said brightly through the silence.

"It's him..." a voice said, and an old woman using a walking stick hobbled up to him, her eyes shining.

The Doctor took a few moments to realise... "Martha Jones?"

"Martha Smith," she corrected with a smile, emphasising the wrinkles around her eyes.

The Doctor just stared at her as she reached up to his face, running an aged hand down his cheek. "You're just like I remember you. Oh, look at you."

The Doctor smiled gently at her as another person stepped up – an old Mickey.

"Doctor," he acknowledged with a nod.

"Little Mickey," the Doctor acknowledged in return, grinning. "You both look..."

"Old?" Martha supposed, taking her hand off of his face and holding his hand instead. "I suppose this must be a shock for you. When did Jack wake you up?"

"A few hours ago," Jack replied, stepping in. "I thought he should be here for the funeral."

Mickey and Martha nodded, just as another person stepped up to the Doctor.

"Hello, Doctor," he said, and the Doctor then realised...

"Luke?"

"Yep," Luke replied. His hair was greying around the sides, and he had his own teenager in tow. "This is Justin," he said, gesturing to the teenage boy, who looked somewhat disinterested. "He's my son."

The Doctor took him and his son in, blinking slightly. He had been expecting it of course, and he was a time traveller, but everything was just so bizarre. He felt like he'd gone to sleep for two minutes and when he'd woken up everyone was old.

"Was Sarah okay in the end?" the Doctor asked quietly.

Luke nodded, smiling. "She died in her sleep, really peacefully... She said to tell you hi, and thank you."

The Doctor nodded, just as the crowd quietened and turned to the grave. The funeral for Don Tyler was starting.

* * *

When the funeral was over, Jack took him to the graves of familiar people. There was Don, of course, in the same grave as Rose. On the same line there was Rhys and Gwen, a few Coopers and a few Williams. Then right at the end, there was a grave for Abi Tyler, Tom's wife, and for Tom Tyler himself.

It was then the Doctor finally processed what was going on, and he dropped to sit next to Tom and Abi's grave, reading the headstone.

**In loving memory of**

**TOM TYLER**

**Father, husband and son**

**2nd February 2011 - 4th March 2059**

**ALSO**

**ABI TYLER**

**Mother, wife, daughter**

**15th November 2014 - 4th March 2059**

**Rest in peace**

"Okay?" Jack asked quietly.

"Give me a minute," the Doctor muttered.

Jack nodded, understanding. He simply took a seat next to the Doctor, and stayed silent.

The Doctor felt like he was going to cry. Crying for all of these dead people that had been his friends, for his dead son he had never even met. He'd missed all their lives completely.

"... Did they have a good life?" was all he asked.

"The best," Jack assured him. "They were all really happy."

That was all the Doctor had really needed to hear.

* * *

The Doctor was sat at a table in the Hub, absently stirring his tea. Everyone had left, now. He'd met Aiden and Josie, Mickey and Martha's kids, and Josie's ten-year-old Lorna. He'd even met with Anwen, Gwen and Rhys' daughter, and she introduced her new husband Edward. He'd seen all of his friend's kids, he'd even talked to a very old Ianto lying in one of the Torchwood rooms, seemingly at Death's door. The only person he hadn't seen yet was his granddaughter.

He'd been back to the TARDIS and she had obviously been overwhelmed to see him and instantly powered up, but she seemed to have lost the ability to talk to him. He didn't mind, just stroked her and smiled. He'd be leaving, soon. He needed the therapy, frankly. He wasn't really sure how to handle any of this, it was all so close to home.

"Doctor," a voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up to find a brown-haired girl gazing at him with a sense of absolute wonder.

"He looks just like those photos of Granddad Don," she said quietly, looking at Jack.

He just smiled supportively. "Come on, I didn't raise you to be shy. Say hello to your granddad."

The girl found herself getting pushed forward by Jack to the man sat at the table, who seemed to be staring at her with unblinking eyes.

"Umm, hello," she said, a little nervously. "My name's Susan."

The Doctor suddenly burst out laughing, absolutely shocked and delighted at the same moment. The girl looked a little confused and surprised.

"What?" she wondered.

"You're my granddaughter and your name's Susan," the Doctor surmised, grinning before collecting himself. "Sorry, hello. I'm the Doctor."

Susan laughed. "Yeah, I know. It's so weird meeting you. Uncle Jack's been talking about waking you up for ages."

The Doctor smiled. "I hope good things," he replied.

"Gran said you travel in space and time," Susan said. "Do you really?"

He nodded.

"Are you gonna leave soon?" she asked.

He nodded again.

"Can I come with you, Grandfather?"

He gazed at her, his granddaughter, 15-year-old Susan, standing there looking so hopeful.

"Of course," he replied eventually, beaming. "Can't leave you here, can I?"

She beamed, running forward to hug him. "Thanks, Granddad!" she said happily, then drew back. "Can I go and look in the TARDIS?"

"Sure," the Doctor replied, and in a matter of milliseconds she was off, running to the TARDIS, already diving in to explore.

The Doctor turned back to Jack and smiled. "You're welcome along."

"Not at the moment," Jack said, shaking his head. "Ianto's old now, I don't really think he's gonna be here for much longer. I need to be with him."

The Doctor nodded, understanding. "Thank you... For looking after them."

"Pleasure," Jack replied honestly. "Drop by whenever. I might tag along next time."

"I'll count on it," the Doctor assured him with a smile, and they hugged. After a few moments they parted and the Doctor turned to walk into the TARDIS. "See you soon!" he yelled from the door. Jack gave a farewell wave, just watching as the Doctor stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door behind him.

The Doctor moved to the centre of the console room, seeing Susan already with her head deep inside the inner workings of the TARDIS.

"Hey, head out," the Doctor reprimanded, grinning.

"Sorry," she replied with an innocent smile diving back out to stand next to him. "Can I press a button? Can I press this one? Please, Granddad."

"I'll teach you later, promise," the Doctor replied. "Now first things first... Where in the Universe d'you want to go?"

"As far away as possible," Susan replied, her eyes lighting up.

"Yes, ma'am," the Doctor replied, stepping up to the console with his granddaughter Susan at his side, reaching out his hands to start piloting. Like so long ago.

It was a new beginning.


	30. Epilogue

"The Time Lord knew death was in reach, but he remained selfless. He travelled to the void, therein he discovered what the creature sought, and continued to his home planet to retrieve the Eye of Harmony. On his last legs he delivered it back to the Darkness.

"He returned to Gallifrey one last time, taken by his friends, Rose, Don, Jack, Sarah and Martha, to the place he had known and missed for so long. Then in a warm hut on a snowy mountain trail, the greatest man the Universe has ever seen drew breath no more. But no one would ever forget him.

"The entire Universe mourned that night for the loss of the Time Lord. As thousands of planets' civilians grieved in processions and tribute, he was committed to a funeral pyre on the tiny blue world he had frequented so much. His friends stood by until the end, watching it burn until it became ash.

"One day the Boundless Man will be born to our race, and he will create a legacy. A legacy spanning eternity, changing the history and the future for the better."

The two young Gallifreyans looked up at the Hermit with wide eyes, hanging onto his every word.

"But... But..." one of them began shuffling forward in his seat. "When will he live? Will it be soon?"

The Hermit smiled gently. "Perhaps, my boy, he is already among us."

The boy who asked him the question nudged his friend and grinned. "I wanna be him."

"Perhaps you could be yet," the Hermit supposed, still smiling and looking between the two of them.

The boy nodded eagerly, but his friend suddenly frowned. "Why is he the Boundless Man if he died?" he asked quietly.

The Hermit spread an even larger smile. "I don't recall ever saying he died, Theta," he pointed out. "Now time's running late, you should both leave."

"But...!" the other boy began.

"C'mon, Koschei," Theta said getting to his feet to leave, dragging Koschei up and pushing him out the door.

"Theta," the Hermit said quickly, getting to his feet.

Theta turned back, half in and half out the door. "Yeah?"

"Your destiny is yours, my boy. External forces can shape it, maybe even direct and influence it, but your destiny lies within you and is determined by what you do with the events you are faced with. The Boundless Man is not a prophecy, but a historic tale echoed back through time of a single man's decisions. Always be true to yourself and you will never be disappointed."

Theta nodded shortly, despite not really understanding. Then he left, closing the door behind him.

"What was that about?" Koschei asked.

"Nothing," Theta dismissed, before shivering and wrapping his academy robes a little tighter around him, snowflakes already in his hair. "Ahh, cold."

"Of course, plungboll, we're halfway up Mount Lung," Koschei mocked, starting off down the path.

"Yeah? Well, you're a plungboll!" Theta yelled back, but Koschei either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him. Theta heaved a sigh and wrapped his robe even more around him, starting off after Koschei, concentrating on his footing. He was so concentrated in fact, that he completely missed the person coming towards him and they ended up colliding – sending Theta falling back onto the snow.

"Oh, sorry kid," a man's voice said and looked up to see a man with black hair, a body of a brown-haired man in his arms. Something didn't feel right to Theta... "You all right?"

"S-sorry," Theta said quickly, scrambling to his feet before quickly running off after Koschei. He didn't want to be late home. He had a class trip with Cardinal Brabbajaggl tomorrow...

**The End... (of the beginning?)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I can be swayed for a sequel or add on or what have you, but not for this one. This is completely and utterly finished and I am never coming back to it. This was a grand master plan for about a year in my head before I finally executed it and it has always been to me and always will remain a complete standalone.


End file.
